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Biographical Sketches 



GENERALS 



OF THE 



CONTINENTAL ARMY OF THE 

(E 

7 



REVOLUTION. . , 



I MAR 1] 189 ^ 



PRINTED FOR SALE AT MOUNT VERNON. 



I53C 



h: 



O^o 



©nibersitg press: 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 






A LIST 

OF 

THE GENERAL OFFICERS OF THE 
REVOLUTIONARY ARMY, 



And Dates of their Appointment by the Continental 
Congress, from June 17, 1775, to the close of the war. 

I. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON, Covimander-in- Chief, 

Appointed June 17, 1775. 



II. MAJOR-GENERALS. 

(Ranked in order as given below.) 



Page 
George Washington . n 
Artemas Ward ... 20 
Charles Lee .... 21 
John Philip Schuyler 23 



Israel Putnam 



Mass. 
\'a. 
N. Y. 



26/ 



June 17, 1775 
.. 19. .. 



(First Brig.-Gens., then Maj.-Gens.) 



Rich. Montgomery 
John Thomas . . 
Horatio Gates . 
William Heath . 
♦Joseph spencer 
John Sullivan . 
Nathaniel Greene 
Lord Stirling . 
Thomas Mifflin 
Arthur St. Clair 

*ADAM STEPHEN . 

Benjamin Lincoln 
Benedict Arnold 
Mar. de Lafayette 
Baron de Kalb , 
Du Coudray . . 
•Robert Howe , 
Alex. McDougal 
•Thomas Conway 
Baron Steuben , 
William Smallwood 
*Samuel H. parsons 
Chevalier Duportaii 
Henry Knox . . 
William Moultrie 



N. Y. 

Mass. 

Mass. 
Conn. 
N. H. 
R. I. 
N.J. 
Penn. 
Penn. 

Mass. 

Conn. 

France 

Germany 

France 

X. C. 

N. Y. 

Ireland 

Prussia 

Maryland 

Conn. 

France 

Mass. 

S. C. 



Brig.-Gen. 


Maj.-Gen. 


June 22, I77S 


Dec. 9, 1775 


» 1. ., 


Mar. 6, 1776 


.. 17. .. 


May 16, ., 


„ 22, ,, 


Aug. 9, .. 


Mar. I, 1776 


Feb. 19, 1777 


May 16, „ 


„ ,, ,. 


Aug-. 9, „ 


.. .. ). 


Sept 4, .. 

t 
Jan. 10, 1776 


" •' " 


May 2, ,, 


t 


July 31. „ 


t 


Sept. IS. „ 


t 


Aug-. II, ,, 


Mar. I, 1776 


Oct. 20. „ 


Aug-. 9, ., 


„ ,, „ 


May 13, 1777 


Dec. 13, „ 


t . 


May 5. 1778 


Oct. 23, 1776 


Sept. 15, 1780 


Auj,'. 9. „ 


Oct. 23, „ 


Nov. 17, 1777 


Nov. 16, 1781 


Dec. 27, 1776 


Mar. 22, 1782 


Sept. 16, „ 


Oct. IS, „ 



Resigned Apr. 23, 1776. 
Dismissed Jan. 10, 1780. 
Resigned Apr. 19. 1779. 
Served to close 01 war. 



Killed Dec. 31, 1776. 
Died June 2, 1776. 
Suspended Oct. s. 1780.! 
Served to close of war. 
Resigned Jan. 13, 1778. 
Resigned Nov. 30, 1779. 
Served to close of war. 
Died Jan. is, 1783. 
Resigned Feb. 23, 1779. 
Served to close of war. 
Cashiered Oct. — , 1777. 
Served to close of war. 
Deserted Sept. 25, 1780. 
Served to close of war. 
Killed Aug. 16, 1780. 
Died Sept. 16, 1777. 
Served to close of war. 
Served to close of war. 
Resigned Apr. 28, 1778. 
Served to close of war. 
Served to close of war. 
Retired July 22, 1782. 
Resigned Oct. 10, 1783. 
Served to close of war. 
Served to close of war. 



No 



engraving exists. f Original appointment as Major-General. 

J Restored Aug. 14, 17S2, but did not serve. 



III. BRIGADIER-GENERALS. 



*Seth Pomeroy. . . . 
David Woostek . . . 
♦Joseph Frye .... 
♦John Armstrong . . 
♦WILLIAM Thompson . 
♦Andrew Lewis . . . 
♦JAMES Moore .... 
♦Baron de Woedtke . 
♦John Whitcomb . . . 
Hugh Mercer .... 
Joseph Reed. .... 

♦John Nixon 

James Clinton .... 
Christopher Gadsden 
Lachlan McIntosh . . 



Page 

• 77! 



90 
91 
91 
93 
95 

♦ William Ma.xwell 96 

♦Roche de Fermoy 97 



Enoch Poor 

John Glover 

♦John Paterson 

James M. Varnum 

Anthony Wayne 

♦John P. de Haas 

Peter Muhlexburg .... 

♦Francis Nash 

George Weedon 

John Cadwalader 

♦William Woodford .... 

George Clinton 

Edward Hand 

Charles Scott 

♦Ebenezer Larned 

♦Chevalier de Borre . . . 
Jedediah Huntington . . . 

♦Joseph Reed 

Count Pulaski 

John Stark 

James Wilkinson (Breref) . . 
♦Chev. de la Neuville (Brevet) 

♦Iethro Sumner 

♦James Hogan 

Isaac Huger 

MoRDECAi Gist 

William Irvine 

Daniel Morgan 

*'S\.OSKS Haz-EN (Brevet) . . . . 

Otho H. ■Williams 

John Greaton 

RuFus Putnam 

Elias Dayton 

♦Armand (Mar. de Rouerie) . 
Thaddeus Kosciusko (Brez'et) 

♦Stephen Movlan 

♦Samuel Elbert 

C. C. PiNCKNEY 

♦William Russell 

Francis Marion 

Thomas Sumter 



Mass. 

Conn. 

Mass. 

Penn. 

Penn. 

Va. 

N. C. 

Prussia 

Mass. 

Va. 

N. H. 

Mass. 

N. Y. 

s. c. 

Georgia 

N. J. 

France 

N. H. 

Mass. 

Mass. 

Mass. 

Penn. 

Penn. 

Penn. 

N. C. 

Va. 

Penn. 

Va. 

N. Y. 

Penn. 

Va. 

Mass. 

France 

Conn. 

Penn. 

Poland 

N. H. 

Maryland 

Francg 

N.C. 

N. C. 

S. C. 

Marj'land 

Penn. 

Va. 

Canada 

Maryland 

Mass. 

Mass. 

N.J. 

France 

Poland 

Penn. 

Georgia 

S. C. 



June 22, 1/75 

Jan. 10, 1776 
Mar. I, „ 



June 5, 
Aug. 9, 

Sept. 16, 

Oct. 23, 
Nov. 5, 
Feb. 21, 



Mar, 25, 
.\pril I, 



May 12, 

Sept. IS, 
Oct. 4. 
Nov. 6, 
Oct. 14, 
Jan. 9, 



May 
Oct. 
June 
May 

Jan. 



Mar. 
Oct. 
Nov. 



Died February, 1777. 
Died (wounds) May 2, 1777. 
Resigned April 23, 1776. 
Resigned April 4, 1777. 
Died Sept. 4, 1781. 
Resigned April 15, 1777. 
Died Jan. 15, 1777. 
Died July 28, 1776. 
Resigned shortly after. 
Died (wounds) Jan. 12, 1777. 
Retired shortly after. 
Resigned Sept. 12, i;8j. 
Served to close of war. 
Resigned Oct. 2, 1777. 
Served to close of war. 
Resigned July 25, 1730. 
Resigned Jan. 31, 1773. 
Died Sept. 8, 1780. 
Retired July 22, 1782. 
Served to close of war. 
Resigned March 5, 1779.- 
Served to close of war. 
Served to close of war. 
Served to close of war. 
Killed Oct. 4, 1777. 
Retired Aug. 18, 1778. 
Refused to accept. 
Died Nov. 13, 1780. 
Served to close of war. 
Served to close of war. 
Served to close of war. 
Resigned March 24. 1778. 
Resigned Sept. 14, 1777. 
Served to close of war. 
Resigned June 7, 1777. 
Killed Oct. 9, 1779. 
Served to close of war. 
Resigned March 6, 177a 
Resigned Dec. 4, 1778 
Served to close of war. 

Served to close of war. 
Served to close of war. 
Served to close of war. 
Retired March, 1781. 
Served to close of war. 
Retired Jan. 16, 1783. 
Served to close of war. 
Served to close of war. 
Served to close of war. 
Served to close of war. 
Served to close of war. 
Served to close of war. 
Served to close of war. 
Served to close of war. 
Served to close of war. 
Non-commissioned. 
Non-conunissioned. 



No engraving exists. 



(The following-named oflBcers of the above were Major-Generals in commission 
at the end of the war.) 



IV. MAJOR-GENERALS AT THE CLOSE OF THE 
WAR. 



George Washington, Comnumder-in-Chief . 

Israel Putnam 

Horatio Gates 

WILLIAM Heath . 

Nathaniel Greene 

Arthur St. Clair 

BENJAMIN Lincoln ... 

Marquis de Lafayette ........ 

Robert Howe 

Alexander McDougal . . 

Baron Steuben 

William Smallwood 

Henry Knox 

William Moultrie 

Lachlan Mcintosh 

James Clinton 

John Paterson 

Anthony Wayne 

Peter Muhlenburg . . 

George Clinton 

Edw-ard Hand 

Charles Scott 

jKDFDiAH Huntington 

John stark 



Virginia 

Connecticut 

Virginia 

Massachusetts 

Rhode Island 

Pennsylvania 

Massachusetts 

France 

North Carohna 

New York 

Prussia 

Maryland 

Massachusetts 

South Carolina 

Georgia (/?; 

New York 

Massachusetts 

Pennsylvania 

Virginia 

New York 

Pennsylvania 

Virginia 

Connecticut 

New Hampshire 



Date 


OF 


Commission. 


June 


17. 


1775- 


„ 


19. 


„ 


May 


16. 


1776. 


Aug. 


9. 


" 


Feb. 


19. 


1777- 


July 


31. 


" 


Oct. 


20. 


» 


May 


5. 


1778. 


Sept. 


IS. 


17S0. 


.Mar. 


22, 


1782. 


Oct. 


15. 


1782. 


Sept 


30, 


1783. 



PREFACE. 



New York, Oct. 5, 188S. 

Dear Mrs. Leiter, — According to promise, I 
have sent you by express to-day a list of the gen- 
eral officers in the Revolution who were commis- 
sioned by the Continental Congress. There were 
others, not in the list, and well known as generals 
who served through the Revolution, but they held 
their commissions in the State Militia. 

The list is made in the order of the date of 
commission, and their rank was determined by this 
date. The collection of portraits I have sent you 
for Mount Vernon is of great historical value, from 
the fact that it is made up to a great extent of por- 
traits issued as "private," or "club portraits," of 
which the plates were destroyed. It would be 
almost impossible to get another set together 
which would be as complete as this is, in con- 
taining the authentic likeness of every general ot 
whom a portrait is known to exist. For years I 
have been engaged with others in tracing out the 

descendants 



8 . PREFACE. 

descendants of these men, and with the object of 
having their portraits engraved whenever a hkeness 
could be found. For a long time nothing new has 
turned up, and I believe we have accomplished 
about all it is possible to do in this line. 
Yours very truly, 

Thomas Addis Emmet. 

The rare and valuable gift of engravings from 
Dr. Thomas Addis Emmet has been placed in the 
old mansion at Mount Vernon ; and as this is the 
only complete collection on exhibition of the gen- 
erals of the Continental Army, it seemed fitting that 
there should be a concise history compiled to enable 
the visitor at Mount Vernon not alone to view this 
valuable collection, but to refer to dates of birth 
and death, commissions of service, and battles of 
importance, in which these generals distinguished 
themselves. In this small book the author has 
sought to enable the reader to obtain information 
of most importance, and also maintain her original 
design of a pocket edition, to encumber as little as 
possible the pilgrim to Mount Vernon. 

The following books have been consulted for the 
compilation of the papers : — 

Journals of the Continental Congress. 

Records of the Revolution, War Department. 

Narrative and Critical History of America. (Justin 
Winsor.) 

The Biography of the American Military and Naval 
Heroes, 1817. (Thomas Wilson.) 



PREFACE. 9 

Washington and his Generals. (J. T. Headley.) 
Lossing's American Revolution. 

Washington and his Masonic Compeers. (Sidney 
Hay den.) 

Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American Biography. 
The Memorial History of Boston. (Justin Winsor.) 
Sparks' Life of Washington, 

Correspondents who have rendered assistance : 

Hon. W. Frye, Maine. 
General Drum, War Department. 
Dr. T. A. Emmet. 

H. C. Spofford, Congressional Librarian. 
Justin Winsor. 
Prof. Edward Channing. 

F. D. Stone, Librarian of Historical Society of Penn- 
sylvania. 

Dr. Toner, Washington. 
Charles J. Hoadly, Connecticut. 



Mary Theresa Leiter, 

Vice-Regent of Ladies' Mount Vernon Association. 
August 7, 1889. 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

George Washington, born at Pope's Creek, near 
Bridge's Creek, Westmoreland County, Virginia, 
on the 2 2d of February, 1732, was the son of 
Augustine Washington and his second wife Mary 
Ball. His earliest known ancestor in this country 
was John Washington, who came to Virginia from 
England in 1657. Augustine Washington died 
when George was but twelve years of age, leaving 
to his widow the care of five children and a large 
property. George's education was such as was 
afforded by the local schools, but included survey- 
ing, — an in^portant branch at that time. Ever 
thoughtful of the feelings of others, at the age of 
thirteen he formulated for his own guidance a set 
of one hundred and ten *' rules of civility and 
decent behavior in company and conversation." 
The next year his half-brother Lawrence obtained 
a midshipman's warrant for him, which he was 
most anxious to accept, but gave up because of his 

mother's 



12 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

mother's opposition. At the age of sixteen he was 
absent from home for several weeks, while survey- 
ing for Lord Fairfax. Delighting in military exer- 
cises and outdoor sports, he grew tall, strong, and 
well proportioned, and at nineteen was chosen ad- 
jutant-general with the rank of major, to inspect 
and exercise the militia of his district. The same 
year he accompanied Lawrence on a trip to Barba- 
does, the doctor having recommended change of 
climate for the improvement of the latter's health. 
Having kept a journal of his surveying trip in 
1 748, he resumed the record of his life with great 
minuteness during this his only sea voyage. Re- 
turning after four months, he soon after received 
the sad intelligence of Lawrence's death, and found 
himself, young as he was, one of his brother's ex- 
ecutors and the guardian of his only child. Neither 
the widow nor the orphan long survived ; and 
upon their demise, Mount Vernon passed to 
George. At this time he joined the Masons. 
The records of the Fredericksburg Lodge show 
the presence of Washington for the first time ^' on 
the 4th of November, 1752." 

" November 6, 1752, received of Mr. George Wash- 
ington for his entrance £2 3i-." 

" March 3, 1753, George Washington passed Fellow 
Craft." 

"August 4, 1753, George Washington raised Master 
Mason." 

In 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 13 

In 1753, the encroachments of the French 
awakening serious alarm, Governor Dinwiddie of 
Virginia selected Major Washington to carry a de- 
mand, in the name of the English monarch, that the 
chain of forts along the Alleghany and Ohio rivers 
should be abandoned. The mission was both a 
difficult and dangerous one ; and failing in its object, 
active preparations were begun in the colonies for 
the war that was now unavoidable. In 1 754, Wash- 
ington was appointed lieutenant- colonel of one of 
the Virginia regiments, and in July distinguished 
himself by his brave defence of Fort Necessity 
at Great Meadows, which he was compelled at 
length to surrender. In 1755, General Braddock, 
as commander-in-chief of the royal forces in 
America, invited Colonel Washington to act as 
aide-de-camp during an expedition having for its 
ultimate object the reduction of the French forts 
of Niagara and Crown Point. Ignorant of the 
modes of Indian warfare, and disregarding his aid's 
warning and advice, Braddock suffered a terrible 
defeat, and lost his life at Fort Duquesne, now 
Pittsburg. The chaplain of the army being also 
among the wounded, Washington read the burial 
service over Braddock at Great Meadows, — the 
scene of his own capitulation one year before. A 
second expedition in 1757 against the same fort, 
led by General Forbes, the advance guard being 
commanded by Washington, resulted in its capture 

and 



14 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

and the change of name. On the 6th of January, 
1759, he was married to Martha Custis, daughter 
of John Dandridge, and widow of a wealthy planter, 
John Parke Custis. The wedding ceremony was 
performed by Reverend John Mossum in St. 
Peter's Church, Kent County, and was one of the 
most brilliant affairs of the kind ever celebrated 
in Virginia. 

''The groom's suit was of blue cloth, the coat lined 
with red silk and ornamented with silver trimmings ; 
his waistcoat, of embroidered white satin ; his knee- 
buckles, of gold; his hair was tied in a queue and 
powdered. The bride's costume was a quilted white 
satin petticoat, a rich white silk overdress with dia- 
mond buckles and pearl ornaments." 

Among the guests, who were all in full court- 
dress, were the governor, many members of the 
Legislature, British officers, and the neighboring 
gentlefolk. Bishop, a tall negro, Washington's 
valet. — to whom he was much attached, and who 
had accompanied him on all his military cam- 
paigns, — stood in the porch, dressed in the scarlet 
uniform of a soldier of George II. At the con- 
clusion of the ceremony Mrs. Washington and her 
three bridesmaids drove from the church to her 
o\\n home, the "White house on the Pamunkey 
River," in a coach drawn by six horses, led by 
liveried postilions ; while Colonel Washington and 
an escort of cavaUers rode at the side. Having 

retired 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 1 5 

retired from the army, he occupied himself with 
the care of his large estate. Elected to the Vir- 
ginia House of Burgesses, when he took his seat 
the Speaker presented him the thanks of the col- 
ony for his former distinguished military services. 
Washington rose, stammered, trembled, but could 
make no fitting response. The Speaker relieved 
his embarrassment by saying, " Sit down, Mr. 
Washington ! your modesty equals your valor, and 
that surpasses the power of any language I pos- 
sess ! " As a delegate in 1774 to the first Con- 
tinental Congress, during the prayer with which 
Dr. Duche opened the meetings, Washington knelt 
while the other members stood. Re-elected in 
1775, he was unanimously chosen commander-in- 
chief on the 17 th of June, his commission reading, 
as follows : — 

Saturday, June 17, 1775. 
To George Washington, Esq. 

We, reposing special trust and confidence in your 
patriotism, valor, conduct, and fidelity, do, by these 
presents, constitute and appoint you to be General and 
Commander-in-chief of the army of the United Colonies, 
and of all the forces now raised or to be raised by 
them, and of all others who shall voluntarily offer their 
services and join the said army for the defence of 
American liberty, and for repelling every hostile inva- 
sion thereof. And you are hereby vested with full 
power and authority to act as you shall think for the 
good and welfare of the service. 

And we do hereby strictly charge and require all 

officers 



l6 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

officers and soldiers under your command to be 
obedient to your orders, and diligent in the exercise 
of their several duties. 

And we do also enjoin and require you to be care- 
ful in executing the great trust reposed in you, by 
causing strict discipline and order to be observed in 
the army, and that the soldiers be duly exercised, and 
provided with all convenient necessaries. 

And you are to regulate your conduct in every re- 
spect by the rules and discipHne of war (as herewith 
given you), and punctually to observe and follow such 
orders and directions, from time to time, as you shall 
receive from this or a future Congress of these United 
Colonies, or Committee of Congress. 

This commission to continue in force until revoked 
by this or a future Congress. 

By order of the Congress. 

Accepting with hesitation, Washington said : — 

'' But lest some unlucky event should happen un- 
favorable to my reputation, I beg it may be remem- 
bered by every gentleman in the room, that I this day 
declare, with the utmost sincerity, that I do not think 
myself equal to the command I am honored with. As 
to pay, I beg leave to assure the Congress that, as no 
pecuniary consideration could have tempted me to ac- 
cept this arduous employment at the expense of my 
domestic ease and happiness, I do not wish to make 
any profit of it. I will keep an exact account of my 
expenses. Those I doubt not they will discharge, 
and that is all I desire." 

Washington's history during the next eight years 
is the history of the Revolution, for he was the 

animating 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 17 

animating spirit and the controlling power through- 
out that great struggle. On the 2d of November, 
1783, he took final leave of the army, and resigned 
his commission on the following 23d of Decem- 
ber. Retiring to Mount Vernon, which he had 
visited but once during the war, he resumed the 
peaceful life of a country gentleman. These were 
happy days, his time being fully occupied with his 
large estate, which required a tour of inspection 
each day. His servants were many; but he gave 
personal attention to their welfare. His guests 
were numerous ; yet all were entertained with a 
bountiful hospitality. One ceremony was never 
omitted at Mount Vernon, and that was a daily 
visit to his old war-horse. Nelson, to pat his head. 
Washington rode him when receiving the surren- 
der of Cornwallis at Yorktown. The war ended. 
Nelson's work was over ; carefully tended, he lived 
to a good old age, but by his master's strict orders, 
no service was ever again required of him. 

In 1784, Washington crossed the Alleghanies to 
visit his lands in western Virginia, and planned the 
Potomac and the James River canals. In 1787, he 
was sent as a delegate to the convention held in 
Philadelphia for the purpose of deciding on the 
best mode of governing the United States. The 
result of their labors was the federal Constitution, 
under the provisions of which Washington was 
unanimously chosen first President, with John 
2 Adams 



1 8 GEORGE WASHINGTON. 

Adams as Vice-President. Owing to a delay in 
the assembling of the members of the first National 
Congress, the inauguration could not take place 
until April 30,1789. Washington's journey from 
Mount Vernon to New York, temporarily the seat 
of government, was the triumphant progress of a 
hero ; young and old, rich and poor, vied with one 
another to do him honor. Being re-elected, he 
took his second oath of office on the 4th of March, 
1793. Appreciating the fact that America's true 
policy was to keep clear of all European alliances, 
on the 2 2d of April of the same year, he issued 
his famous proclamation of neutrahty, to restrain 
the United States from taking any part in the 
French Revolution. 

Wearied with his long public service, and not 
deeming it for the best interests of the country 
that he should enter upon a third term, on the 
1 6th of September, 1796, Washington published 
his " Farewell Address." His tenure of office ex- 
piring on the 4th of March, 1797, he once more 
sought the tranquil enjoyment of life at Mount 
Vernon. War-clouds were gathering on the horizon ; 
and when hostilities with France seemed inevitable, 
he again responded to the call of his country, and 
accepting on the 3d of July, 1 798, the appoint- 
ment of lieutenant-general and commander-in- 
chief, began the organization of an army. The 
difficulties were, however, settled without an ap- 
peal 



GEORGE WASHINGTON. 1 9 

peal to arms, though Washington did not Uve to 
know it. Riding over his estate on the 12th of 
December, 1799, during a snow-storm, he con- 
tracted a severe chill from which he never seemed 
to rally, and died on the 14th, saying to Dr. Craik, 
his physician, "I die hard ; but I am not afraid to 
go." His funeral occurred on the i8th, Reverend 
Thomas Davis preaching the sermon, a schooner 
lying in the Potomac firing minute-guns, and his 
favorite horse being led after the coffin. Richard 
Henry Lee pronounced a eulogy before both 
Houses of Congress, in which occurred the since 
oft-quoted words, — " first in war, first in peace, and 
first in the hearts of his countrymen." Napoleon 
ordered all the standards and flags in the French 
army to be bound with crape for ten days, and the 
British fleet of sixty ships-of-the-line, lying at Tor- 
bay, England, lowered their flags to half-mast upon 
hearing the sad intelligence. Sincerely mourned 
by the whole civiUzed world, his memory to-day is 
cherished as that of no other man has ever been, 
and the passing years but add to the lustre of his 
fame. Beautifully has it been said of him, " Provi- 
dence left him childless that his country might 
call him father." 



20 ARTEMUS WARD. 



ARTEMUS WARD. 



Artemus Ward, born in Shrewsbury, Massachu- 
setts, in 1727, graduated at Harvard College in 
1 748. Soon after, he entered public life as a rep- 
resentative in the Colonial Assembly, and later was 
a delegate in the first Provincial Congress, and 
justice of the peace in his native town in 1752. 
Having gained some reputation for military abil- 
ity during the French and Indian War, he was 
appointed commander-in-chief of the Massachu- 
setts troops on the 19th of May, 1775, and held 
that rank until the arrival of Washington at Cam- 
bridge. Though nominally in command during 
the battle of Bunker Hill, he remained in his camp 
and took no active part in determining the events of 
that day. On the 19th of May, 1 775, he was made 
brigadier-general, and on the 17th of June, 1775, 
he was commissioned as senior major-general by 
the Continental Congress, being the first officer of 
that rank appointed by that body. Owing to im- 
paired health, however, he resigned on the 23d of 
April of the year following, but at the request of 
Washington, continued to act until May. From 
that time until his death, he held responsible legis- 
lative and judicial positions, and served in the 
former one for sixteen years. Possessed of high 
integrity and unyielding principles, his judicial con- 
duct 



CHARLES LEE. 



duct won for him much praise, especially during 
Shays' Rebellion in 1786. He died in his native 
town on the 28th of October, 1800. 



CHARLES LEE. 

Charles Lee, born in 1731 at Demhall in 
Cheshire, England, was destined by his parents, 
from, his earhest youth, to the profession of arms ; 
his education, therefore, was such as to further that 
purpose. In 1758, he came to New York with the 
British forces designed for the conquest of Louis- 
burg, and served with distinction during the French 
and Indian War. Returning to England at the 
close of the war, he threw himself with character- 
istic ardor into politics ; but finding this too tame 
a pursuit, he offered his services to Poland, then to 
Russia against the Turks, and in 1773 returned to 
America, where, on the 17th of June, 1775, he was 
appointed second major-general of the Continental 
forces, — Washington at the same time being made 
commander-in-chief, though from his experience 
and brilliant achievements abroad, Lee had hoped 
for the latter appointment himself. His first service 
was the putting of New York City in a good state of 
defence. In March, 1776, Congress ordered him 
south, and in conjunction with General Moultrie, 

he 



2 2 CHARLES LEE. 

he defeated the British at Charleston, South Caro- 
Hna, in the battle of the 28th of June, with the fleet 
of Parker under Lord Cornwallis. Moultrie won 
the victory, although it was conceded to Lee. 
Moultrie constructed the famous Palmetto Fort on 
Sullivan's Island. 

In October, Lee was recalled to New York ; here 
his jealousy of Washington blinded his better judg- 
ment and led him into a series of indiscretions 
which after the battle of Monmouth subjected him 
to a court-martial, some of the charges being " dis- 
obedience of orders," " misbehavior before the en- 
emy," and "disrespect to the commander-in-chief." 
The court found him guilty of these charges, and 
Congress, after considerable delay, on Monday the 
loth of January, 1780, resolved, "That Major-Gen- 
eral Charles Lee be informed that Congress have 
no further occasion for his services in the army 
of the United States." Retiring to his estate in 
Berkeley County, Virginia, he led the life of a her- 
mit, shunning society and devoting himself to agri- 
cultural and literary pursuits. His dwelHng was a 
rudely built house containing one large room, chalk- 
marks on the floor taking the place of partitions and 
indicating where the various apartments should be. 
Wearying of this life, and his farm proving unprofit- 
able, he went to Philadelphia to make arrangements 
for selling it. While attending to this business, he 
was attacked by a fatal illness and died there on 
the 2d of October, 1782, at the age of fifty-one. 



JOHN PHILIP SCHUYLER. 23 



JOHN PHILIP SCHUYLER. 

John Philip Schuyler, born at Albany on the 
22d of November, 1733, was of Dutch origm. 
He was the second son of John Schuyler, who 
was the nephew of Peter Schuyler, — a native 
of Albany, born m 1657. At the age of twenty- 
two he received the appointment of commissary 
under Lord Howe, and rendered valuable service 
throughout the French and Indian War. In 1755, 
he recruited a company for the army and was com- 
missioned its captain, taking part in the battle of 
Lake George. His health failing, he w^as obliged 
to transfer his command at Ticonderoga to General 
Montgomery. After the peace of 1763, he turned 
to the management of his private affairs. Inherit- 
ing a large property, much of which was covered 
with valuable timber, he transported the latter in 
his own vessels down the Hudson River to New 
York City, where he found a favorable market. 
Cultivating large fields of flax, and there being no 
facihties for its utiUzation, he built a flax-mill, — 
the first of its kind in this country, — and re- 
ceived, in recognition of his enterprise, a medal 
from the Society for Promoting Arts. In 1764, he 
was appointed a commissioner to settle the dis- 
putes between the States of New York and Massa- 
chusetts, relative to their boundary line, and he 

arbitrated 



24 JOHN PHILIP SCHUYLER. 

arbitrated in the same controversy between New 
York and New Hampshire. When elected to a 
seat in the Assembly of New York, he was one of 
the few in that body to antagonize the oppressive 
measures adopted by the British Government in its 
dealings with this country. He was made colonel 
of a State militia company in 1768. 

In May, 1775, Schuyler was elected a delegate 
to the Continental Congress at Philadelphia, but 
such was the appreciation of his military ability 
and his patriotism that on the 19th' of June he 
was appointed third major-general of the Amer- 
ican army, and given command of its Northern 
division. Being possessed of great wealth, he pro- 
vided large stores of arms, ammunition, clothing, 
and provisions, from his private purse, to suitably 
equip this army for the campaign against Can- 
ada. Stricken by a wasting fever from which he 
suffered for two years, he planned and directed 
even when too ill for active service. Fearing lest 
his increasing weakness might work against the 
public good, he sought leave during this time to 
retire ; but Congress, well knowing his worth and 
his devotion to his country, requested him to re- 
consider his determination, at the same time tend- 
ering him a vote of thanks for past services. 
Schuyler responded nobly, contributing his wealth 
and using all his personal influence in behalf of 
American independence. At the end of two years 

of 



JOHN PHIUP SCHUYLER. 25 

of hardships, disappointments, arduous labor, great 
responsibiUty, and inadequate supplies of men and 
of provisions to accomplish the tasks set him by 
Congress, he at length saw his way to certain vic- 
tory. At this critical moment Gates appeared in 
camp, and Philip Schuyler found himself superseded 
by a man who, from jealousy, had always been his 
enemy, and who had tried in every way to bring 
about his downfall. Wounded to the quick, he 
bore this most unjust treatment with dignity, and 
without showing resentment ; and Congress having 
accepted his resignation on the 19th of April, 1779, 
he continued still to serve his country as a private 
citizen. In 1782, he was appointed Surveyor- 
General of New York. A zealous advocate for the 
adoption of the Constitution, he was elected a 
member of the first United States Senate, filling 
that office from 1789 until 1798, when a severe 
attack of gout compelled his resignation. It is 
to him that the State of New York is indebted for 
her excellent canal system. As early as 1776 he 
calculated the actual cost of a canal from the 
Hudson River to Lake Champlain ; and later he 
advocated the connection of that river and Lake 
Erie by the same means. Dying in his native city at 
the age of seventy-one, on the i8th of Novem- 
ber, 1804, he was buried v/ith mihtary honors. 
In 187 1, a Doric column of Quincy granite, 
thirty-six feet high, was erected to his memory. 



26 ISRAEL PUTNAM. 



ISRAEL PUTNAM. 



Israel Putnam, born at Salem, Massachusetts, on 
the 7th of January, 1718, was a Hneal descendant 
of one of the Puritan Pilgrims. Even as a boy, 
he displayed that fearlessness and resolution that 
in later years characterized his mihtary career. A 
fierce wolf was causing much loss of hfe among 
the sheep, and great annoyance to the farmers 
in the neighborhood, while cunningly eluding all 
their efforts to kill her. Putnam tracked her to 
her den, and descending into its gloomy recesses, 
shot her by the light of her own blazing eyeballs. 
He led the life of a farmer until the breaking out 
of the French and Indian War, when by his in- 
domitable courage and enterprise he won a name 
that gained for him a high rank at the beginning 
of the Revolutionary War. When news of the 
skirmish at Lexington flew like wildfire over the 
country, Putnam, who was ploughing, left his yoke 
of oxen standing in the furrow, and mounting his 
fleetest horse, hurried to Boston. 

On the 19th of June, 1775, Congress appointed 
Putnam major-general, but it was not until the 
month following that he became acquainted with 
General Washington, who subsequently declared 
him to be " a most valuable man and a fine 
executive officer." He served with distinction 

throughout 



ISRAEL PUTNAM. 27 

throughout the war, again and again effecting by 
his daring boldness results that seemed impos- 
sible with the limited resources and insufficient 
number of men at his command. In the winter 
of 1778, while superintending the building of the 
fort at West Point, he visited one of his out- 
posts at West Greenwich. Governor Tryon with 
five hundred dragoons made at this time an at- 
tack, hoping to capture Putnam, who had but 
fifty men. Stationing himself on the brow of a 
steep hill, Putnam received the attack with a dis- 
charge of artillery, then ordered his men to with- 
draw to a swamp where no cavalry could follow 
them, while he himself escaped by urging his 
horse down the almost perpendicular declivity. 
Not one of the British dared to follow. The 
descent known as Horse Neck has since borne 
the name of " Putnam's Hill." During the next 
winter, while still superintending the erection of 
new fortifications along the Hudson River, he suf- 
fered a stroke of paralysis from which he never 
recovered, although he lived till the 19th of May, 
1790. His friend. Dr. Dwight, in summing up 
his character speaks of him as — 

" A hero who dared to lead where any dared to 
follow ; as a patriot who rendered gallant and dis- 
tinguished services to his country ; as a man whose 
generosity was singular, whose honesty was prover- 
bial, and who raised himself to universal esteem, and 

offices 



2 8 RICHARD MONTGOMERY. 

offices of eminent distinction, by personal worth and 
a useful life." 

During the Revolution he was familiarly known 
as *' Old Put." The British offered him money 
and the rank of major-general if he would desert 
the American cause ; but he could neither be 
daunted by toil and danger, nor bribed by gold 
and honors. 



RICHARD MONTGOMERY. 

Richard Montgomery, born in Ireland, on the 2d 
of December, 1736, educated at Trinity College, 
Dublin, entered the British army at eighteen as 
ensign. He performed good service during the 
French and Indian War, taking an active part in the 
siege of Louisburg and at the storming of Quebec 
under Wolfe. At the close of the war, he obtained 
permission to return to Europe; but in 1772, he 
resigned his commission in the British army and 
came to New York, being fully in sympathy with the 
colonies in their conflict with the mother country. 
He identified himself with the American colonists 
by purchasing a farm, and shortly after marrying 
the daughter of Robert R. Livingston. In 1 775, he 
represented Duchess County in the first New York 
Provincial Convention. On the 2 2d of June of the 

same 



RICHARD MONTGOMERY. 29 

same year, Congress appointed him brigadier- 
general in the Continental army. Preparations 
were immediately begun for investing Canada, as 
Congress appreciated the importance of securing 
commanding positions, to prevent invasions from 
that quarter and the alliance of the frontier Indians 
with our enemies. It being thought best to divide 
the forces, part were sent by way of the Kennebec, 
under Arnold, the others, by way of the Sorel River, 
were intrusted to Montgomery. Both armies had 
to contend with insufficient provisions and untold 
hardships of all kinds. Montgomery succeeded, 
however, in taking the fortresses of St. Johns, 
Chambly, and Montreal. At St. Johns the colors 
of the Seventh Fusileers were captured, being the 
first taken in the Revolution. In sending his re- 
port to Congress, Montgomery added, " Until 
Quebec is taken, Canada is unconquered." On 
the 9th of December, 1775, he was advanced by 
Congress to the rank of major-general. About 
this time Arnold crossed the St. Lawrence, and at 
last the two armies were united and ready to act 
in concert. But cold, privation, and toilsome 
marches had done their work, and reduced the 
number of men available for active service to less 
than one thousand, while Quebec was not only 
strongly fortified, but amply garrisoned. A summons 
to surrender was answered by firing upon the bearer 
of the flag. A siege of three weeks served only to 

dishearten 



30 RICHARD MONTGOMERY. 

dishearten still further the frost-bitten and half- 
starved Americans. But the stout hearts of Mont- 
gomery and Arnold never quailed. At a council 
of war, it was decided that their best chance of 
success lay in attempting to carry the place by 
assault. Accordingly, on the 31st of December, 
1775, in the midst of a blinding snow-storm, the 
two leaders began the attack before daylight. The 
city was to be stormed simultaneously at two 
different points ; and Montgomery, leading his 
division along the river-bank, and often helping 
with his own hands to push aside the huge blocks 
of ice that impeded their progress, succeeded in 
carrying the first barrier. Waving his sword and 
shouting, '^ Men of New York, follow where your 
general leads ! " he pressed eagerly forward, when 
a discharge of grape-shot ended his life, and also 
killed several of his staff. Dismayed by the death 
of their leader, and discouraged by the tremendous 
odds against them, the xA.mericans were at length 
driven back, and compelled to leave the gallant 
Montgomery on the field of battle. The victors, 
appreciating the courage and nobility of the fallen 
hero, generously offered a resting-place for his re- 
mains within the walls of the beleaguered city. 

In 1818, by an "Act of honor" passed by the 
New York Legislature in behalf of Mrs. Mont- 
gomery, Sir John Sherbrooke, Governor- General 
of Canada, was requested to allow her husband's 

remains 



JOHN THOMAS. 31^ 

remains to be disinterred and brought to New 
York. This was granted, and " her soldier," as 
she ahvays called him, now sleeps in St. Paul's 
churchyard near the monument that was ordered 
in France by Benjamin Franklin, in pursuance of 
a resolution of the Continental Congress. 



JOHN THOMAS. 

John Thomas, born in Marshfield, Massachusetts, 
in 1725, was a successful medical practitioner, en- 
tering the British army first as a surgeon, in 1746. 
He took a prominent part in the French and Indian 
War, but at its close devoted himself to his profes- 
sion. He was, however, among the first to counsel 
resistance to British oppression, and having raised 
a regiment of volunteers, was appointed brigadier- 
general by the Provincial Congress on the 9th of 
February, 1775, and afterward received the same 
appointment from the Continental Congress on the 
2 2d of June of the same year. On the night of 
the 4th of March, 1776, with three thousand picked 
men, he took possession of Dorchester Heights, 
commanding Boston, where the British were in- 
trenched, and before morning had thrown up a 
formidable line of earth-works, — an advantage 
which finally led to the evacuation of the town by 

the 



32 HORATIO GATES. 

the enemy on the 17th of March. The death cf 
Montgomery at the storming of Quebec necessita- 
ting the appointment of an experienced officer to 
command the troops in Canada, this duty was 
assigned to Thomas, — Congress having advanced 
him to the rank of major-general on the 6th of 
March, 1776. He promptly repaired to his new- 
post, but while waiting for promised reinforce- 
ments, was attacked by small-pox, from which he 
died on the 2d of June, 1776, universally respected 
and deeply deplored. 



HORATIO GATES. 

Horatio Gates, born in Maiden, Essex County, 
England, in 1728, was the godson of Horace Wal- 
pole. Entering the military service of Great Britain 
at an early age, he soon rose to the rank of major. 
After the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle he was stationed 
with his regiment at Halifax. At the breaking out 
of the French and Indian War, he joined General 
Brad dock's army in the expedition against Fort 
Duquesne, and received in that battle a severe 
wound that prevented his taking an active part 
again until near the close of the war, when he 
acted in 1762 as aid to General Monckton in the 
expedition against the island of Martinique. After 

the 



HORATIO GATES. ^Z 

the peace of Paris in 1763, Major Gates, like many 
other EngUsh officers, settled in America. He 
purchased a fine tract of land in Berkeley County, 
Virginia, and devoted himself successfully to agri- 
culture. He had married Mary, the only child of 
James Valence of Liverpool, and at her father's 
death, just before the Revolution, she joined her 
husband in this country, bringing with her ^450,- 
000, which she freely expended. Thaddeus Kosci- 
usko was tenderly nursed by her six months. As 
his wound was a severe one, he owed his life to her 
generous care. 

When war became inevitable. Gates offered his 
services to Congress, receiving the appointment 
of adjutant-general, with the rank of brigadier- 
general, June ^ 17, 1775. From the first, how- 
ever, he coveted the position of commander-in- 
chief, and on more than one occasion showed his 
jealousy of Washington. Having many powerful 
friends in Congress, he was advanced to the rank 
of major-general May 16, 1776, and in June was 
appointed to the command of the army in Canada 
with his headquarters at Ticonderoga. Not find- 
ing any army in Canada, it having been compelled 
to retreat to New York, he claimed command 
of the whole Northern army, then under Schuyler, 
with his headquarters at Albany. Congress sus- 
tained 

1 Journals of Congress. Appleton's Cyclopaedia gives 
the month July. 



34 HORATIO GATES. 

tained the latter general, but this period marks 
the beginning of a series of intrigues which cul- 
minated in the "Conway cabal" to supplant Wash- 
ington. Gates' complicity in this conspiracy will 
forever tarnish his fame, as it no doubt saddened 
his life. Demoralized by hard service, insufficient 
food and clothing, with their pay in arrears, and 
consequently no money to send to their starving 
families, the Northern army could accomplish 
little except to gain in discipline and knowledge 
of military tactics. At length Schuyler's prudent 
measures and wise strategy were beginning to tell in 
northern New York, and his sacrifices and heroism 
were about to be rewarded, when at this critical 
moment General Gates was given command of the 
Northern army, and arriving on the 21st of August, 
1777, assumed the direction of affairs, already in 
train for a splendid victory. The battles of Still- 
water and Saratoga forced Burgoyne to surrender 
his entire army with all their arms and ammunition 
on the 17th of the following October. The con- 
duct of Gates during the latter battle has led to the 
charge of lack of personal courage, as throughout 
the engagement he remained in a position of safety 
two miles away, ready to flee with the teamsters 
and baggage-wagons should the action result in a 
defeat for the Americans. Burgoyne, on the con- 
trary, was in the thick of the battle, receiving three 
bullets in his clothing. 

In 



HORATIO GATES. 35 

In 1780, Gates was given command of the 
Southern army, and prepared to attack CornwalHs 
at Camden, South CaroHna. By a serious error 
in judgment, Gates suffered a most humiliating 
defeat, which ended his mihtary career. On the 
5th of October, 1780, he was suspended from 
service until his conduct could be investigated. 
Deeply mortified, he retired to his farm in Berkeley 
County, but as he passed through Richmond, the 
State Legislature passed a resolution expressive of 
their sympathy in his misfortune and their unabated 
confidence in his patriotism and military skill ; he 
received, too, a letter from Washington containing 
assurances of sincere sympathy and promises of a 
command when the court of inquiry should have 
acquitted him. Restored to his command on the 
14th of August, 1782, he did not serve, as the war 
was then practically over. The battle of Camden 
virtually ended his career. In 1790, he removed 
to New York City, generously freeing all his Vir- 
ginia s-laves, and amply providing for the aged and 
infirm. In 1800, he was elected to the New York 
State Legislature, and died on the loth of April, 
1806. 



36 WILLIAM HEATH. 



WILLIAM HEATH. 

WiLLUM Heath, born on the 2d of March, 1737, 
was the son of a farmer living in Roxbury, Massa- 
chusetts. DeUghting in miUtary exercise, he joined 
the miUtia company of his town. In 1765, he 
became a member of the " Ancient and Honor- 
able Artillery" corps of Boston, subsequently be- 
coming its commander. In 1770, he contributed 
a series of articles to a Boston newspaper, urging 
the importance of military training, etc. In 1774, 
he received an appointment in the Provincial army 
of Massachusetts, and on the 2 2d of June was 
created brigadier-general by the Continental Con- 
gress and placed in command at Roxbury. On 
the 9th of August, 1776, he was raised to the 
rank of major-general. Though taking part in 
none of the great battles of the war, he did 
good service as recruiting officer, commissary, and 
quartermaster. After the close of the war he 
retired to his farm at Roxbury. Subsequently he 
was elected senator^ counsellor, Presidential elec- 
tor, judge of probate, and in 1806 Lieutenant- 
Governor of Massachusetts. This office, however, 
he declined, choosing to spend his last years as a 
private citizen. He died on his estate in Roxbury 
on the 24th of January, 1S14. 



JOSEPH SPENCER. 37 



JOSEPH SPENCER. 

Joseph Spencer, born at East Haddam, Connecti- 
cut, in 1 714, was an officer of militia, with the rank 
of colonel, during the French and Indian War. He 
was appointed brigadier-general on the 2 2d of 
June, 1775, h% the Continental Congress, and 
major-general on the 9th of August, 1776. When 
the British fleet appeared off the coast of New 
England, in December of that year, he was sent 
with Arnold to take charge of the militia in that 
section. Spencer was in command at Rhode 
Island in 1778. Admiral Sir Peter Parker having 
taken possession of Newport, Spencer had assem- 
bled his forces at Providence to dislodge him. 
After spending some weeks in marching and coun- 
ter-marching, the enterprise had to be abandoned, 
as the Americans were too weak to attempt such 
an assault. General Spencer resigned his commis- 
sion on the 13th of January, 1778, and though an 
earnest advocate of American independence, took 
but little part in public affairs during the remainder 
of his life. He died at his native place, East 
Haddam, in January, 1789. 



38 JOHN SULLIVAN. 



JOHN SULLIVAN. 

John Sullivan, born in Berwick, Maine, on the 
1 7th of February, 1 740, was of Irish parentage, his 
father having emigrated to this country in 1723. 
He was pubhc-spirited, and hating oppression, as 
a zealous advocate of Americai^ rights proved 
himself so able a partisan that in 1772 he was 
commissioned major of the militia. In 1774, he 
became a member of the Continental Congress, 
but resigned his seat to enter the army, being 
appointed a brigadier-general, on the ^2d of 
June, 1775. Employed for a time at Cambridge 
in disciplining the troops and securing supplies, 
he was sent to Canada in 1776 to command the 
sur\'ivors of the Northern army. Being superseded 
by Gates, he rejoined the army under Washington, 
and on the 9th of August of the same year was 
commissioned a major-general. He was made 
prisoner at the battle of Long Island, but was soon 
after exchanged. In 1778, he was assigned to the 
command of the forces in Rhode Island, and re- 
ceived not only the commendation of the wisest 
men throughout the country, but also the thanks 
of Congress for his conduct under very trying 
circumstances during this campaign. In 1779, he 
was selected by Washington to lead an army 
against the " Six Nations," occupying the fertile 

region 



NATHANIEL GREENE. 39 

region of northern Pennsylvania and western New 
York. The atrocities of these Indians demanding 
the severest measures, Sullivan, after defeating their 
chief, laid waste their fields and orchards, burned 
their villages, and drove them beyond the frontier 
to take refuge with their English allies. He resigned 
his commission on the 30th of November, 1779, 
and entered upon the practice of the law. He 
held several positions of national trust and respon- 
sibility, and served his State as attorney-general, 
as president, and as justice of its Federal Court. 
While discharging the duties of the latter office, 
he died at Durham on the 23d of January, 1795. 
Harv^ard College conferred upon General Sullivan 
the degree of LL.D. in 1780. 



NATHANIEL GREENE. 

Nathaniel Greene was bom at Potowomut, within 
the jurisdiction of Warwick, Rhode Island, on the 
6th of June, 1742. His ancestors, of good English 
extraction, were among the first settlers on the 
banks of Providence River. Having a natural 
aptitude for study, he spent his extra earnings for 
books, which trained and developed his mind, as 
physical toil and out-door sports had strengthened 
his body. In 1770, being elected to the General 

Assembly 



40 NATHANIEL GREENE. 

Assembly of Rhode Island, he acquitted himself 
with credit. Foreseeing the struggle with the 
mother country, he began to prepare himself for 
an active participation by studying the best military 
text-books of those times. He married in July, 
1774. The following April, the battle of Lexing- 
ton rendering the war inevitable, Rhode Island 
promptly responded to the call for troops by rais- 
ing an army of sixteen hundred men ; and in 
May, 1775, Greene was placed in command as 
major-general. He showed the good effects of 
his former preparation by the vigilant drill and 
thorough discipline of the troops intrusted to his 
command. By his conduct at the battle of Bunker 
Hill, he gained the confidence and esteem of 
Washington. When the different bodies of State 
troops were reorganized into the Continental 
army, Greene received a regular commission as 
brigadier-general on the 2 2d of June, 1775; but 
in acknowledgment of his sterling worth, Congress 
promoted him to the rank of major-general on the 
9th of August, 1776. His first regular battle was 
that at Harlem, when the British, having taken 
New York, lay siege to Fort Washington. During 
the subsequent retreat of the Americans through 
the Jerseys, he was the companion and counsellor 
of Washington. When defeat was at last changed 
to victory by the battle of Trenton, he seized the 
artillery of the enemy and cut off their retreat to 

Princeton. 



NATHANIEL GREENE. 4 1 

Princeton. The American army went into winter- 
quarters at Valley Forge ; and then Greene, yield- 
ing to the urgent entreaties of Washington and of 
Congress, assumed the arduous duties of quarter- 
master-general, which onerous position he held 
for two years, with credit to himself, and with in- 
estimable benefit to the army. Greene presided 
at the " board of inquiry " convened for the trial 
of Andr^. With regret he signed the decree of 
the court condemning the young officer to death. 
The post at West Point left vacant by Arnold's 
treason was given to Greene, who took command 
Oct. 8, 1780. After the defeat of Gates at 
Camden, Greene was intrusted with the command 
of the armies of the South, which post he held 
until the close of the war. At the conclusion of 
his military career he established himself on a 
plantation in Georgia, and for the first time in 
many years enjoyed the opportunity of indulging 
his love of nature. This tranquil pleasure, how- 
ever, was short-lived, for through an unfortunate 
exposure to a Southern sun and the exhalations 
of a Georgia rice-field, he contracted a malignant 
fever, from which he died on the 19th of June, 
1786, aged but forty-four years. As a man, he 
was honorable, trustworthy, and patriotic ; as a 
soldier, wise, prudent, brave, and unflinching in 
the discharge of his duty. 



42 LORD STIRLING. 



LORD STIRLING. 



William Alexander, or according to his title, the 
Right Honorable William, Earl of Stirling, better 
known in history as Lord Stirling, was born in 
New York City, in 1726. His father, James x'-Vlex- 
ander, a native of Scotland, fled to this country in 
1 716 after the wars of the Pretender. Having 
been appointed Surveyor-General of New Jersey 
and New York, he was able to give much personal 
supervision to the education of his only son, and 
dying in 1756, left him an ample fortune. Thor- 
oughly trained in mathematics, and with a fine mili- 
tary spirit, William Alexander distinguished himself 
in the French and Indian War ; at its close he vis- 
ited Europe, took measures to establish his claim to 
the earldom of Stirling, and returning to America, 
devoted himself to the duties of Surveyor-General 
of New Jersey. His first opposition to the mother 
country was his denunciation of the Stamp Act, 
and his efforts to have it repealed. When blood- 
shed followed passive resistance, he was selected, 
in the summer of 1775, to command a regiment. 
On the I St of March, 1776, Congress appointed 
him brigadier-general. For his gallantry during 
the attack of the British on New York, Congress 
advanced him to the rank of major-general, on the 
19th of February, 1777. Though compelled on 

several 



THOMAS MIFFLIN. 43 

several occasions to retreat before vastly superior 
numbers, in each case he secured so advantageous 
a position, and defended it with such courage and 
constancy, as to check the further advance of the 
enemy, and to frustrate their purpose. During 
the winter of 1777-78, while Washington was en- 
camped at Valley Forge, a conspiracy was set on 
foot to substitute Gates as commander-in-chief. 
Providentially, this plot was discovered by Lord 
Stirling before any material harm had resulted. 
It was not until 1780 that he obtained leave of 
absence to visit his family, and to attend to his 
private affairs at Baskenridge. In 1781, he again 
took the field to repel a threatened invasion from 
Canada, and was actively engaged until 1783, when 
his useful and honorable career was brought to a 
close by his death. He expired on the 15th of 
January, 1783, almost as deeply mourned by the 
troops he had commanded as by his nearest con- 
nections and warmest personal friends. 



THOMAS MIFFLIN. 

Thomas Mifflin, a descendant of one of the first 
settlers of Pennsylvania, was born in Philadelphia 
in 1 744, and educated for the business of a mer- 
chant, which occupation he followed with much 

success. 



44 THOMAS MIFFLIN. 

success. In 1772 and the year following, he 
represented Philadelphia in the Colonial Legislature, 
and in 1774 was one of the delegates for Pennsyl- 
vania to the first Congress. i\fter the battle of 
Lexington he engaged promptly in enlisting and 
disciplining troops, being appointed major. July 4, 
1775, Washington made him an aide-de-camp, 
and in the August following, quartermaster-general. 
May 16, 1776, Congress commissioned him briga- 
dier-general; and Feb. 17, 1777, he was appointed 
major-general, in recognition of the skill and 
efficiency he had shown in bringing the militia into 
service, though he failed to give satisfaction in his 
capacity of quartermaster. Becoming discontented 
during the gloomy period marked by the *' retreat 
through the Jerseys," he tendered his resignation. 
Congress relieved him of his duties as quarter- 
master and continued nis rank as major-general, 
but without the pay. In May, 1778, he rejoined 
the army, and was a mover in the conspiracy to 
substitute Gates for Washington. Feb. 25, 1779, 
he again resigned. In 1782, he was elected to the 
Continental Congress, and being chosen president 
of that body the following year, received in that 
capacity the commission of Washington when he 
resigned, on the 23d of December, 1783. Mifflin 
continued to take an active part in American 
pohtics, and from 1790 to 1799 vvas Governor 
of Pennsylvania. In December of that year he 



ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 45 

was elected to the State Legislature, and died 
while attending its session at Lancaster, Jan. 20, 
1800. 



ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 

Arthur St. Clair, bom in Edinburgh in 1734, 
graduated at the university of that city, and began 
the study of medicine. His ardent temperament, 
however, could ill brook the quiet monotony of a 
doctor's life, so enUsting in the British army, he 
came to this country in 1755. He was present at 
the battle on the " Heights of Abraham," and after 
the peace of 1763 was given command of Fort 
Ligonier in western Pennsylvania. During the next 
ten years, he purchased a tract of land, married, 
engaged in the business of a farmer and land sur- 
veyor, and became a magistrate in Westmoreland 
County. His patriotism being well known, he was 
appointed colonel in the Continental army in De- 
cember, 1775, and in 1776 was ordered to Canada, 
arriving in the vicinity of Quebec just in time to 
cover the retreat of the troops under Arnold. On 
the 9th of August following, he received his com- 
mission as brigadier-general, and joining Washing- 
ton in the autumn, took part in the battles of 
Trenton and Princeton. The confidence and 

esteem 



46 ARTHUR ST. CLAIR. 

esteem of his commander-in-chief and of Congress 
found expression in his advancement to the rank 
of major-general on the 19th of February, 1777; 
and soon after he was intrusted with the command 
of Fort Ticonderoga. On the approach of Bur- 
goyne the following July, he deemed it best to 
abandon this fortress and to retreat, as the small- 
ness of the garrison and the lack of everything 
necessary to withstand either an assault or a siege 
rendered defeat inevitable. His conduct, however, 
was severely criticised by Congress, and he was 
suspended and summoned to Philadelphia for trial. 
Despite all his efforts to the contrary, this investiga- 
tion was delayed for many months. At last he was 
tried by court-martial in October, 1778, and fully 
exonerated of all charges against him. Washing- 
ton's confidence in him had never been shaken, and 
he made it apparent by employing him in various 
important missions. He served to the close of the 
war, and in 1786 was elected to Congress from 
Pennsylvania, and soon afterward was chosen presi- 
dent of that body. In 1788, Congress appointed 
him first governor of the Northwest Territory, but 
in 1 791, he suffered a terrible defeat by the In- 
dians of that section, and again his conduct was 
investigated and again he was acquitted of all 
blame. In 1802, being removed by President 
Jefferson from the office of governor, he returned 
to Ligonier Valley. Broken in health, stripped of 

his 



ADAM STEPHEN. 47 

his fortune, and unable to make good his just 
claims against the Government, he . had aban- 
doned all hope, when the State of Pennsylvania 
settled an annuity upon him of ^300, which was 
afterward increased to ^650 a year. He died at 
Greensburg, Pennsylvania, on the 31st of August, 
i8i8. 



ADAM STEPHEN. 

Adam Stephen, born in Virginia about 1730, 
served first as captain, then colonel, under Wash- 
ington throughout the French and Indian War, 
aiding materially in bringing that struggle to a 
dose. At the beginning of the Revolution, Virginia 
gave him command of one of her seven regi- 
ments, and Sept. 4, 1776, Congress appointed him 
brigadier-general in the Continental army, pro- 
moting him to major-general Feb. 19, 1777. 
He was at the battle of Brandywine ; but at 
Germantown his division became involved in a 
combat with the troops of Anthony Wayne, owing 
to a fog. Stephen was held responsible for the 
blunder, court-martialled, and dismissed from the 
service in October, 1777. He died in his native 
State in November of 1791. 



48 BENJAMIN LINCOLN. 



BENJAMIN LINCOLN. 

Benjamin Lincoln, bom Jan. 24, 1733, at Hing- 
ham, Massachusetts, led the life of a farmer ; but 
warmly espousing the cause of the colonists when 
troubles began with Great Britain, was intrusted 
with various miUtary offices, and after two years 
of active service with the Massachusetts troops, 
was commissioned major-general in the Conti- 
nental army on the 19th of February, 1777. In 
the following October, he received a severe wound 
which lamed him for life, and prevented his rejoin- 
ing the army until August, 1778. In September, 
Congress gave him the chief command of the South- 
ern army, but upon repairing to Charleston, South 
Carolina, he found the entire State of Georgia in 
the hands of the British, and the American army 
in the South almost destroyed. Setting about his 
task with courage and resolution, he busied him- 
self in collecting the necessary supplies and 
recruits, and making all needful preparations for 
driving the enemy from their various strongholds. 
In each engagement, however, he was unsuccessful, 
and was at last taken prisoner at the surrender of 
Charleston, on the 12th of May, 17S0. He was 
exchanged in November, and rejoined the army in 
June, 1781. Again he was despatched to the South, 
but this time with far different results. 

When 



BENEDICT ARNOLD. 49 

When the siege of Yorktown ended in the sur- 
render of CornwaUis, that general feigned illness ; 
to escape the mortification of surrendering his 
sword personally, he sent it by General O'Hara. 
Washington, with a fine delicacy of feeling, ordered 
the sword to be delivered to General Lincoln, who, 
eighteen months before, had been compelled to sur- 
render to Sir Henry Clinton at Charleston, Corn- 
waUis being one of the principal officers. This cam- 
paign closed Lincoln's active service in the field, 
as he was soon after appointed Secretary of War, 
and held that responsible position until the dis- 
banding of the army in October, 1 7S3. Shays' Re- 
bellion, in 1786, again called him into the field, and 
after quelling it, he served as Lieutenant-Governor 
of Massachusetts in 1788, and collector of the port 
of Boston from 1789 to 1806, when the infirmities 
of old age necessitated his withdrawal. He died 
on the 9th of May, 1810, in the seventy-eighth 
year of his age. Harvard College conferred upon 
him the degree of M. A. in 1780. 



BENEDICT ARNOLD. 

Benedict Arnold, born Jan. 14, 1741, in Nor- 
wich, Connecticut, ran away from home at the 
age of fifteen, and entered the military force of his 
native State, then marching to Albany and Lake 
4 George, 



50 BENEDICT ARNOLD. 

George, to resist the French invasion. Growing 
weary of discipline, he deserted, returned home 
alone through the wilderness, and became a drug- 
gist's clerk, afterward skipper of a New-England 
schooner trading with the West Indies, and at 
times a horse-dealer. His spirit of adventure and 
his early taste of war led him to offer himself 
among the first who took the field when the Amer- 
ican colonies began their struggle for indepen- 
dence. In conjunction with Col. Ethan Allen he 
surprised the garrison at Fort Ticonderoga on 
the loth of May, 1775, capturing large stores of 
cannon and ammunition without the loss of a 
single man. Disagreeing with the officers of the 
party, and becoming bitterly jealous of Allen, 
Arnold left New York ; and applying to Washing- 
ton for service in the Continental army, he was 
given command of about five hundred men and 
despatched, by way of the wilderness, to join Gen- 
eral Montgomery in an attack on Quebec. During 
the Canadian campaign, as during his service in 
New York, Arnold evinced the same traits of char- 
acter, — dashing gallantry and perfect fearlessness 
when in action, with petty meanness, vindictive- 
ness, arrogance, and covetousness at all other times. 
On the loth of January, 1776, Congress bestowed 
on him the rank of brigadier-general, and after his 
defeat of Tryon at Danbury, and his daring hero- 
ism in bearing from the field the body of the 

gallant 



BENEDICT ARNOLD. 5 1 

gallant Wooster, he was promoted to the rank of 
major-general on the 2d of May, 1777. Being 
ordered again to the North, he did good service 
under Schuyler ; but all his worst passions seem to 
have been aroused when Gates took command. 
The stirring events immediately preceding the sur- 
render of Burgoyne prevented an open rupture, and 
Arnold's reckless daring at the battle of Saratoga, 
though gaining the victory, resulted in rendering 
him a cripple for life. Incapacitated for active 
service, he was placed in command at Philadelphia 
when that city was evacuated by the British, on the 
17th of June, 1778. At this point Arnold's down- 
ward career began. There are just grounds to be- 
lieve that he entered into a secret contract to 
enrich himself at the expense of the pubUc ; and 
finding many of the wealthiest of the citizens to be 
Tories, he used all his influence in their behalf, 
hoping, no doubt, for a pecuniary reward. His 
second marriage with Miss Shippen bound him 
still more closely to the Tory faction.-^ In Novem- 
ber, 1778, Gen. Joseph Reed was elected presi- 
dent " of the executive council of the State " of 
Pennsylvania, and in the discharge of his duties, 
brought the deUnquencies of Arnold to the notice 
of Congress. A court-martial on Jan. 26, 1780, 

sentenced 

1 His first wife was Margaret, daughter of Samuel Mans- 
field of New Haven, by whom he had three sons, Benedict, 
Richard, and Henry. 



52 BENEDICT ARNOLD. 

sentenced him to be reprimanded by the com- 
mander-in-chief. In addition to the pubhc dis- 
grace, he was now cut ofif from various sources of 
revenue by which he had been striving to ward 
off a threatened bankruptcy, and his pecuniary 
affairs became sadly involved through extravagance 
and wild speculations. Unsuccessful in his at- 
tempt to obtain a loan from the French minister, 
De la Luzerne, he appears to have entered into cor- 
respondence with the British, but soon found that 
to obtain any considerable sum of money from that 
quarter, he must have control of some place worth 
the purchase. Accordingly, having many warm 
friends in Congress and in the army, he brought 
strong pressure to bear upon Washington to grant 
him the command of West Point. Yielding at 
length, though reluctantly, Arnold was assigned to 
this important post, and immediately put himself in 
direct communication with the British commander- 
in-chief, Sir Henry Clinton. On the night of the 
2 1 St of September, 1780, Major Andr^ was sent 
by the latter to obtain personally from Arnold all 
the information necessary to capture West Point 
and the posts on the line of the Hudson. Arnold's 
elaborate plans, however, miscarried ; Andr^ was 
captured. West Point saved, and Arnold obliged 
to fly. Though receiving the military rank and 
the money promised him by Sir Henry Clinton, — 
ten thousand pounds sterling and a commission as 

brigadier 



MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. 53 

brigadier in the British army, he was almost as 
much detested by the English as by the Americans, 
and after some brutal outrages in Virginia and 
Connecticut, ended his days in obscurity in London, 
on the 14th of June, 1801. 



MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. 

Marie Jean Paul Roch Yves Gilbert Motier, 
Marquis de Lafayette, was born at Chavagnac, in 
the province of Auvergne, France, on the 6th of 
September, 1757. He was educated at the mili- 
tary college of Duplessis, in Paris ; graduating at 
sixteen, although offered a high position in the 
royal household, he preferred the career of a war- 
rior, and at nineteen had risen to the rank of 
captain of dragoons. During the summer of 1776 
his interest in the American colonies in their 
struggle for independence became so great that he 
determined to espouse their cause. Discouraged 
by all except his noble young wife, who sympathized 
with the oppressed colonists as warmly as he did, 
Lafayette persevered ; and when the news of the 
disastrous termination of the campaign of 1776 
reached France, he generously determined to offer 
not only his services, but also his wealth. Prohib- 
ited by the king from leaving Europe, he reached 

Spain 



54 MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. 

Spain in disguise, and with Baron de Kalb and 
ten other officers embarked for x^merica. After a 
perilous voyage, they landed on the Carolina coast. 
Proceeding at once to Philadelphia, he offered his 
services as a volunteer and without remuneration. 
When his credentials had been examined, and his 
rank, wealth, and undaunted perseverance became 
known, he was appointed major-general July 31, 
1777. His valor, coolness in the presence of 
danger, and military ability were shown on more 
than one occasion ; but when our alliance with 
France involved that country in war, he applied 
to Congress for permission to return to France, for 
although he had incurred the displeasure of the 
king by coming to America, he was still that king's 
soldier, and in the hour of need he felt he owed 
his first duty to his native land. Congress granted 
him the desired leave of absence, instructed its 
president to write him a letter of thanks for coming 
to America and for his valuable services, and di- 
rected our minister at Versailles to present him a. 
sword, suitably engraved, as a token of the esteem 
and gratitude of the United States. His return to 
France was hailed with joy by the people, though 
the court for a time refused to notice him. Pres- 
ently, however, he was given a command in the 
king's own regiment of dragoons. A year later, 
March, 1780, he returned to the United States, and 
re-entering the army, was actively engaged until 

the 



MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE. 55 

the close of the war. After the fall of Yorktown, 
he again asked leave of absence to visit his family. 
Arrived in France, he was at once made major- 
general in the French army, his commission to 
date from the surrender of Cornwallis. 

In 1 784, Lafayette paid a short visit to this coun- 
try, being received everywhere with marks of love 
and respect. In 1785, he returned to Paris to find 
the finances of his country hopelessly involved, and 
the people ripe for revolution. Throughout his sub- 
sequent life he remained true to those high princi- 
ples of honor, patriotism, and love of humanity, that 
had led him so warmly to espouse the cause of lib- 
erty and justice. Kept for years a prisoner in the 
most loathsome dungeons, his property confiscated, 
his wife doomed to the guillotine and only saved 
by the death of Robespierre, his son an exile but 
finding shelter in the home of Washington, he was 
at length restored to liberty by the power of Napo- 
leon. In 1824, he was invited by Congress to 
revisit the United States. Though most of his 
friends and companions-in-arms had passed away, 
and a new generation had grown up, the whole 
nation united to welcome and do him homage. 
He died in 1834, leaving behind him the record of 
one who amid every temptation and allurement 
had remained the stanch, unwavering advocate of 
constitutional liberty. 



56 BARON DE KALB. 



BARON DE KALB. 

JoHANN, Baron de Kalb, bom in Hiittendorf, 
Bavaria, on the 29th of July, 1721, had gained in 
the armies of France the reputation of being a brave 
and meritorious officer. At the close of the Seven 
Years War, he married the daughter of a Holland 
millionnaire. In 1768, he came to this country as a 
secret agent of the French Government, and had 
already attained to the rank of brigadier-general in 
the French army, when he entered into an agree- 
ment with Silas Deane and Benjamin Franklin to 
join the Continental forces. Coming to this coun- 
try with Lafayette, De Kalb's services were at once 
accepted by Congress, a commission as major- 
general given him on the 15th of September, 1777, 
and the command of the Maryland division of the 
Continental army. Studious in his habits, exceed- 
ingly temperate in his diet, kindly and courteous 
of manner, his many noble and lovable traits 
endeared him to all with whom he was associated. 
For three years he served this country gallantly 
and well, sealing his devotion to liberty and justice 
with his hfe-blood. On the i6th of August, 1780, 
at Camden, South Carolina, while fighting against 
vastly superior numbers, and rallying his men by 
words of courage and deeds of valor, he fell, pierced 
with eleven wounds. He died three days after, 

saying 



DU COUDRAY. 57 

saying to one who was condoling with him, 
" I thank you for your generous sympathy, but 
I die the death I always prayed for, — the 
death of a soldier fighting for the rights of 
man." 

Many years after, when Washington visited his 
grave, he exclaimed, " So there lies the brave De 
Kalb, — the generous stranger who came from a 
distant land to fight our battles and to water with 
his blood the tree of our liberty. Would to God 
he had lived to share its fruits ! " 



PHILIPPE CHARLES JEAN BAPTISTE 
TRONSON DU COUDRAY. 

Philippe Charles Jean Baptiste Tronson du 
CouDRAY, born in Rheims, France, on the 8th of 
September, 1738, was educated to the vocation of 
a mining engineer, and ranked as one of the best 
in his native country, when in 1776, he offered his 
services to Silas Deane and Benjamin Franklin. 
These commissioners entered into an arrangement 
with Du Coudray by which, on condition of his 
furnishing certain military supplies, he was to enter 
the American service, with the rank and pay of 
major-general, and the command of the artillery. 
After several days' debate on the subject, Congress 

dirl 



58 ROBERT HOWE. 

did not see fit to ratify this agreement in full, 
Washington also expressing a doubt as to whether 
so important a command as that of the artillery 
should be vested in any but an American, or one 
attached by ties of interest to the United States. 
He was accorded his promised rank, however, 
being appointed major-general on the nth of 
August, 1777, and placed in superintendence of the 
works being constmcted on the Delaware. His ser- 
vice was of short duration, for on the 1 6th of Sep- 
tember in the same year, while hastening, after the 
battle of Brandy wine, to ofter himself as a volunteer, 
he accidentally lost his life. While crossing the 
Schuylkill in a ferry-boat, his horse became un- 
manageable, plunged with him into the river, and 
he was drowned before any assistance could be 
rendered. The next day Congress passed a reso- 
lution directing his burial at the expense of the 
United States and with the honors of war. 



ROBERT HOWE. 

Robert Howe, born in Bmnswick County, North 
Carolina, in 1732, was of English descent. He 
married young, took his wife to England; and lived 
for two years with some relatives. Returning to 
this country, he was appointed in 1766 commander 

at 



ROBERT HOWE. 59 

at Fort Johnson in North CaroUna. At the begin- 
ning of the Revokition, he was a member of the 
Committee of Safety for his native county, and with 
General Woodford was in command of Norfolk 
when that place was attacked and destroyed by 
Lord Dunmore, on the ist of January, 1776. 
Prosecuting the war with vigor, Howe drove Dun- 
more out of Virginia. The Assemblies of North 
Carolina and Virginia recognized his services by a 
vote of thanks ; Congress appointed him brigadier- 
general in the Continental army on the ist of 
March, 1776; and on the 5 th of May following. 
General Clinton excepted him when offering par- 
don in the king's name to all Carolinians who 
would lay down their arms and return to their 
allegiance. The next year he was ordered to join 
the Southern army ; and on the 20th of October, 
1777, he was raised to the rank of major-general, 
and intrusted with an expedition against St. 
Augustine. After some successes, the destruction 
of one fourth of his army by an epidemic com- 
pelled him to abandon this project, and he was 
afterward assigned to duty in Georgia. Being 
defeated here, he joined Washington on the 
Hudson, and remained in active service at the 
North until the close of the war. In 1785, he 
was appointed a commissioner to treat with the 
Western Indians, and upon returning to his native 
State, was received with public honors and shortly 

at\er 



6o ALEXANDER McDOUGAL. 

after elected to the Legislature. Before the time 
arrived for him to take his seat, he died of fever 
on the 1 2th of November, 1785. 



ALEXANDER McDOUGAL. 

Alexander McDougal, born on the island of 
Islay, Scotland, in 1731, was brought to New York 
while still a child, by his father. At first Alexan- 
der followed the sea, took part in the French and 
Indian War as commander of two privateers, — the 
"Barrington" and the "Tiger," — and then set- 
tling in New York City, became one of her successful 
merchants. Keenly alive to the aggressive steps 
taken by the home Government in her dealings with 
her American dependencies, he drew upon himself 
censure and imprisonment in 1769, by writing an 
address entitled, " A Son of Liberty to the Betrayed 
Inhabitants of the Colony," in which he rebuked 
the Assembly for entering upon the favorable con- 
sideration of a bill of supplies for troops quartered 
in the city to overawe the inhabitants, and for re- 
jecting a proposition authorizing the vote by ballot. 
An incarceration of twenty-three weeks in what 
is now the registrar's office, made him the first 
martyr in the American struggle for independence. 
When set at liberty, he entered into correspondence 

with 



THOMAS CONWAY, 6 1 

with the master-spirits all over the country, presided 
over the celebrated "meeting in the fields " in 
1 7 74, was appointed colonel of the first Revolu- 
tionary regiment raised in New York, and was 
created brigadier-general in the Continental army 
on the 9th of August, 1776, and immediately went 
into active service. After the battle of German- 
town and upon the recommendation of Washington, 
he was promoted to be major-general on the 20th 
of October, 1777. From the beginning of 1778 
to the close of 1780, he was in command at various 
posts along the Hudson, but was summoned in the 
latter year to represent New York in Congress, and 
in 1 781 was appointed minister of marine. In 
1783, when the army went into winter-quarters at 
Newburg, he was chosen as head of the com- 
mittee sent to Congress to represent their griev- 
ances. At the close of the war he was elected to 
the Senate of New York, and filled that position 
until his death on the 8th of June, 1786. 



THOMAS CONWAY. 

Thoimas Conway, born in Ireland on the 27th of 
February, 1733, was taken by his parents to France 
when he was but six years of age. Educated in 
that country, he entered her army, and in 1777 

had 



62 THOMAS CONWAY. 

had attained the rank of colonel and the decora- 
tion of the Order of St. Louis. Seeing in the 
American Revolution a chance of rapid promotion, 
he sought an interview with Silas Deane, and came 
to this country with his promise that he should be 
appointed to a high rank in the Continental army. 
Congress redeemed this promise on the 13th of 
May, 1777, by giving him the commission of a 
brigadier-general and assigning to him a command 
in Lord Stirling's division. After taking part in the 
battles of Brandywine and Germantown, he urged 
his friends in Congress to obtain promotion for him. 
Washington, divining his true character, and believ- 
ing that his real motive in coming to America was 
self-aggrandizement rather than a devotion to the 
sacred cause of liberty, opposed his advancement 
as an injustice to more deserving officers. 

Selfish, unscrupulous, and delighting in mis- 
chief, Conway was busily plotting against Wash- 
ington ; and being upheld by Gates, Mifflin, Dr. 
Rush, and others, he sought to displace him and 
elevate Gates to the position of commander-in- 
chief. This intrigue, known as the " Conway 
cabal," ^ coming to the knowledge of Washington, 
he informed Conway of the discovery of the plot, 
whereupon the latter tendered his resignation. 
Congress, however, though fully cognizant of the 

charges 

1 Conway cabal, — "A conspiracy to deprive Washington 
of the command of the army." 



THOMAS CONWAY. Gt, 

charges against him, did not accept it, but on the 
contrary gave him his coveted promotion, advanc- 
ing him to the rank of major-general on the 13th 
of December, 1777. Restless and ever dissatisfied, 
on the 28th of April, 1778, he wrote to Congress 
complaining of the post assigned him, and condi- 
tionally tendering his resignation ; but the tide of 
favor had already turned, and Congress at once ac- 
cepted his resignation unconditionally, thus forcing 
him to quit the army. During the following sum- 
mer his caustic speech made him many enemies, 
and in a duel with General Cadwalader, growing 
out of some disparaging remarks of Conway con- 
cerning Washington, Conway was shot through the 
mouth, the bullet coming out of the back of his 
neck. He fell upon his foce, but raising himself, 
said, " General, you fire with much deliberation 
and certainly with a great deal of effect." Believing 
the wound mortal, a few days afterward Conway 
wrote an humble apology to Washington, retracting 
all he had ever said against the commander-in- 
chief. Contrary to his own and his surgeon's sup- 
position, however, he recovered ; but meeting with 
a cold reception from his former friends, he soon 
after returned to France, re-entered the military ser- 
vice, and was appointed Governor of Pondicherry 
and the French settlements in Hindostan. His 
quarrelsome disposition involved him in a dispute 
with Tippoo Sahib which is said to have ruined 

French 



64 BARON STEUBEN. 

French prospects in India. In 1792, he was sent 
to take command of the Royalist army in the south 
cf France, but during the revolution which followed 
he was obliged to flee the country, and died about 
the year 1800. 



BARON STEUBEN. 

Frederick William Augustus Henry Ferdinand 
VON Steuben, known in thi^ country as Baron 
Steuben, was born in Magdebu/g, Prussia, on the 
15th of November, 1730. The son of a soldier, 
his earliest recollections were of the camp. At the 
age of ten years, returning with his father from a 
campaign in the Crimea, he was placed in the 
Jesuit College at Neisse, and later transferred to 
that at Breslau, distinguishing himself at both as a 
mathematician. When but fourteen, he served with 
his father in the war of 1 744, and was present at 
the siege of Prague. At seventeen, as a cadet, he 
entered a regiment of infantry, rose in two years to 
be ensign, and in four more to be lieutenant. As 
aide-de-camp to Frederick the Great of Prussia, 
he served in the Seven Years War, taking part 
in the celebrated battle of Prague. At the res- 
toration of peace in 1763, he resigned his post 
in the army and was appointed to a position 
at court, commanding a liberal salary. In 1777, 

learning 



BARON STEUBEN. 65 

learning that the greatest weakness of the Ameri- 
cans lay in their ignorance of miHtary tactics and 
want of thorough discipline, he left his life of ease 
in the Old World, and coming to the New, pre- 
sented himself to Congress as a volunteer. If the 
cause were lost, they owed him nothing ; if gained, 
he would expect remuneration equivalent to the 
salary he had resigned. His offer being accepted, 
he went to Valley Forge and began *his great work, 
whereby our whole military system assumed new 
shape. On the 5th of May, 1778, Congress ap- 
pointed him inspector-general of the army, with 
the rank of major-general, and no officer of that 
grade in the field did so much toward our ultimate 
success as did this born organizer and discipHnarian. 
The following year, he wished to take the field ; 
but the American officers expressed so much dis- 
satisfaction, on account of being outranked, that 
he withdrew his request and devoted himself to 
his old work, which to him must have seemed 
little better than that of a drill-sergeant. In 
1780, he published a manual for the army that 
was of great value, and is still considered an 
authority. Written in German, it was translated 
into French, then into English, in which language 
it was wholly unintelligible to him. Warm-hearted 
and hospitable, he shared his last dollar with his 
suffering brother officers, and even at one time 
sold his horse that he might have the means of 
5 entertaining 



66 BARON STEUBEN. 

entertaining his camp guests. With a chivalrous re- 
gard for truth and honor, he despised the very name 
of Arnold. At review one day he heard the name 
of " Benedict Arnold " called over with those of 
some new recruits. Regarding its owner keenly for 
a few moments, and being pleased with his manly 
bearing, the baron said, "Young man, you must 
change your name ; you are too respectable to bear 
the name of a traitor ! " " What name shall I take, 
General? " " Take any other ; mine is at your ser- 
vice." Adopting the name of Steuben, the young 
man received a christening present of a monthly 
allowance, and eventually a large tract of land. 

After the defeat of Gates, Baron Steuben was 
sent to Virginia to help General Greene, and when 
Arnold entered that State in the pay of the British, 
the baron used every endeavor to capture the traitor 
and bring him to justice. Serving actively at the 
siege of Yorktown, he was in command of the 
trenches when Cornwallis was summoned to sur- 
render. Lafayette offered to relieve the baron; 
but he replied that European etiquette required 
him to remain at his post until the terms of the 
surrender were accepted or hostilities resumed. 
When the English flag was lowered to its American 
conquerors, Steuben's men had the proud satisfac- 
tion of being foremost of those on duty. At the 
close of the war, he was sent to Canada to demand 
the surrender of all the posts along the frontier 

but 



BARON STEUBEN. 67 

but being unsuccessful in this mission, returned to 
headquarters. Upon the disbanding of the army, 
he retired to private life, resided in New York 
City for several years, while waiting for Congress 
to redeem its promise to pay him for his arduous 
and self-sacrificing services. In the mean time 
Pennsylvania, Virginia, and New Jersey voted him 
grants of land ; but that from the last-named State 
he declined, because it had been the confiscated 
estate of a Tory who would be left destitute. New 
York now voted him a township near Utica, and 
Congress after an ungracious delay of seven years 
voted him a pension of $2,400 per annum. Retir- 
ing to his New York estate, he cleared sixty acres, 
built a log house, and spent the remainder of his 
life in dispensing a large-hearted hospitality, in 
agricultural pursuits, and the enjoyment of his val- 
uable library. Once a year he visited New York 
City, but in 1795, while preparing for this annual 
trip, he was stricken with paralysis, and died on 
the 25th of November. By his own direction he 
was wrapped in his military cloak, and on his breast 
was placed the diamond star of the Order of Fi- 
delity, which he had received from the Prince Mar- 
grave of Bavaria, and which he always wore. His 
funeral was attended by his neighbors, and was with- 
out pomp or military display of any kind. Colonel 
North, his favorite aid, inherited his property and 
erected a small monument to his memory. 



68 WILLIAM SMALL WOOD. 



WILLIAM SMALLWOOD. 

William Smallwood, born in Kent County, Mary- 
land, in 1732, was elected colonel of the Maryland 
battalion on the 2d of January, 1776; and on the 
loth of July following, at the head of nine com- 
panies he joined Washington in New York. His 
troops took an active part in the battle of Brooklyn 
Heights on the 20th of August. Fighting desper- 
ately from sunrise until the last gun was fired at 
night, they lost nearly half their number. Again, on 
the 1 8th of October, at White Plains, the Maryland 
troops fought valiantly. Smallwood was severely 
wounded, and for his gallantry was commissioned 
brigadier-general by the Continental Congress on 
the 23d of October, 1776. At Fort Washington, 
November 16 of the same year, his troops again 
distinguished themselves, but with heavy loss in 
killed and wounded. In the summer of 1777, he 
joined Sullivan in his expedition against Staten 
Island, and when the British arrived in the Chesa- 
peake, to Smallwood was intrusted the collecting 
and organizing of the Western Shore Maryland 
Militia. In the battle of Germantown, on the 4th 
of October, Smallwood 's troops retrieved the day, 
and captured part of the enemy's camp. Stationed 
by Washington at Wilmington during the winter of 
1777-78, he captured a British brig in the Dela- 
ware 



WILLIAM SMALLIVOOD. 69 

ware River, laden with stores and provisions. Or- 
dered South with the army under Gates in 1780, 
his command behaved with their accustomed 
bravery at the disastrous battle of Camden, for 
which Sraallwood received the thanks of Congress 
and was promoted to the rank of major-general on 
the 15th of September, 1780. 

When Greene superseded Gates in command of 
the Southern army, Smallwood refused to serve 
under Baron Steuben, who was then his superior 
officer, and declared his intention of retiring, unless 
his commission was antedated two years. So ab- 
surd a claim could not be allowed, as besides there 
being no reason for changing the date, to comply 
would have thrown into confusion the entire list of 
major-generals. Smallwood, however, remained in 
service until the 15th of November, 1783, when 
Congress accepted his resignation. In 1785, his 
native State elected him to Congress and the same 
year chose him for governor. The latter office he 
held for three years and then retired from public 
life. He died in Prince George's County, Mary- 
land, on the 14th of February, 1792, 



70 SAMUEL HOLDEN PARSONS. 



SAMUEL HOLDEN PARSONS. 

Samuel Holden Parsons, born in Lyme, Connect- 
icut, on the 14th of May, 1737, graduated at Har- 
vard College in 1756, studied law and began its 
practice in 1759, was a member of the General As- 
sembly of his native State from 1762 to 1774, was 
chosen colonel of militia in 1775, and appointed 
brigadier-general by Congress on the 9th of August, 
1776. In 1779, he succeeded Putnam as com- 
mander of the Connecticut line of the army, was 
promoted to the rank of major-general on the 23d 
of October, 1780, and served with distinction to 
the end of the war. In 1785, Congress appointed 
him one of the commissioners to treat with the 
Indians at Miami ; in 1 788, President Washington 
made him judge of the Northwest Territory ; and 
in 1789, in behalf of Connecticut, he treated as 
commissioner with the Wyandots and other In- 
dians on the borders of Lake Erie. Returning 
from this mission to his home in Marietta, Ohio, 
he was drowned by the capsizing of his boat while 
descending the rapids of Big Beaver River on the 
17th of November, 1789. 



CHEVALIER DUPORTAIL. 7 I 



CHEVALIER DUPORTAIL. 

Louis Lebegue Duportail, born in France, was 
educated at the military school of Mezieres, and 
considered an excellent engineer. When Con- 
gress instructed our commissioners in Paris to 
secure a few good engineers, Duportail was one of 
the four thus selected ; and these were the only 
ones engaged by the express authority of Congress. 
On his arrival in this country, he was appointed 
colonel of engineers and promoted to the rank of 
brigadier-general on the 17th of November, 1777. 
He wintered with the army at Valley Forge, and 
after the battle of Monmouth, when the enemy left 
Philadelphia, he was sent to ascertain what de- 
fences would be necessary to its security, and to 
plan fortifications for the Delaware. He also 
superintended the strengthening of the defences 
at Fort Clinton and at Boston. In 1779, he was 
charged with confidential despatches to Count 
d'Estaing, but the subsequent repulse of the French 
and American troops at Savannah, and the depart- 
ure of D'Estaing, rendered this mission fruitless. 

In 1780, being sent to join General Lincoln at 
Charleston, Duportail was captured, together with 
this officer, during the summer; but through the 
efforts of Congress, they were both exchanged in 
the autumn. In 17S1, he carried despatches to 

the 



72 HENRY KNOX. 

the Count de Grasse, and later the same year had 
charge of the engineering operations at the siege 
of Yorktown, being specially mentioned by Wash- 
ington in his despatches after the capitulation. 
On the i6th of November, 1781, Congress con- 
ferred on him the rank of major-general, and 
granted him a six-months furlough to visit his 
native land. He resigned his commission in the 
United States army on the loth of October, 1783, 
and in 1788 was named marechal-de-camp of the 
French army. In 1 790, he was made minister of 
war, but resigned a year later, to accept a military 
appointment in Lorraine. Leaving the army in 
1792, he returned to this country in 1794, and 
remained here until 1802, when, being recalled to 
France, he died at sea during the voyage home. 



HENRY KNOX. 

Henry Knox, born in Boston in 1750, lost his 
father at an early age. His mother's income 
being a slender one, and his devotion to her being 
very great, he soon felt the need of personal ex- 
ertion, and before attaining his majority, had es- 
tablished himself as a bookseller. Having a natural 
fondness for military tactics, he joined a company 
of grenadiers, and thus when the smouldering fire 

of 



HENRY KNOX. 73 

of dissatisfaction against taxation without repre- 
sentation burst into the flames of the Revolution, 
Knox had gained practical knowledge of warlike 
manoeuvres. His father-in-law was a pronounced 
Tory; but his wife, sharing his own sentiments, 
helped him to escape from Boston that he might 
join the army. Appreciating our need of artillery, 
and knowing that no cannon were to be had ex- 
cept those in the old forts along the Canadian 
frontier, he volunteered to bring this ordnance to 
Washington's camp at Cambridge, and accom- 
plished this difficult and hazardous undertaking 
with such skill and courage that Washington 
rewarded him with the command of the artillery. 
This branch of the Continental service being at- 
tached to the main body of the army, Knox was 
in every battle where Washington fought, and 
never failed to exhibit the judgment, perseverance, 
and bravery that gained him success in the Can- 
ada expedition. On the 27th of December, 1776, 
Congress appointed him brigadier-general. At 
the battle of Monmouth, June 28, 1778, he was 
wounded in his left hand. For his distinguished 
services at the siege of Yorktown in 1781, Con- 
gress appointed him major-general on the 2 2d of 
March, 1782. He was one of the three commis- 
sioners intrusted with the adjustment of the 
terms of peace. On the 25th of November, 1783, 
he received as Washington's deputy the surrender 

of 



74 HENRY KNOX. 

of the city of New York ; and his military career 
ended with the command of West Point. When 
the Continental army was about to be disbanded, 
he conceived the idea of forming a society of 
his old and dearly loved companions-in-arms. 
This was the origin of the Society of the Cincin- 
nati, of which Knox was first vice-president. 

At the close of 1 783, Knox retired to his home in 
Maine, but in 1784, Congress, under the Articles of 
Confederation, appointed him Secretary of War, 
which office he held until, in 1795, Washington 
reluctantly accepted his resignation. It was dur- 
ing the time he was at the head of the War De- 
partment, and by his advice, that the United 
States Marine Service was organized. Retiring 
once more to his home in Maine, he dispensed 
the most princely hospitality, it being no unusual 
thing for him to entertain a hundred guests daily. 
When events threatened a war with France, and 
President Adams thought best to form an army, 
Knox was again appointed major-general. He 
died suddenly at his residence in Thomaston, 
Maine, in 1806. 



WILLIAM MOULTRIE, 75 



WILLIAM MOULTRIE. 

William Moultrie, born in England in 1731, 
came of good Scotch ancestry. His education 
was such as could be gained at that early day in 
the South CaroUna colony to which his family 
had removed while he was still a child. In 1761, 
as captain of a company of volunteers, he marched 
against the Cherokee Indians, and gained much of 
that military skill that made him such a conspicu- 
ous character during the Revolution. In 1775, 
he was a member of the South Carolina Provin- 
cial Congress, and when that body authorized the 
seizure of the public arsenals, he was one of the 
patriot band who put this advice into practice. 
When news of the battle of Lexington reached 
South Carolina, he was appointed colonel of one 
of her regiments, and designed the flag — a blue 
field with a silver crescent in the right-hand upper 
corner — which her troops carried to their first vic- 
tory. The driving of the British sloops-of-war 
from Charleston Harbor, the seizing of Fort John- 
son, and finally the glorious victory at the Pal- 
metto Fort on Sullivan's Island, freed South 
Carolina for several years from the horrors and 
the devastations of war, and secured to Moultrie 
immortal fame and a prompt recognition of his 
military ability. He received the thanks of Con- 
gress ; 



76 WILLIAM MOULTRIE. 

gress ; the fort he had so ably defended was named 
for Mm; and Sept. i6, 1776, he was raised to 
the rank of brigadier-general in the Continental 
army, with the duty of attending to the interests 
of South Carolina and Georgia. The campaign 
of 1779 brought a renewal of hostilities in the 
South, with most disastrous results. Repulsed and 
kept at bay for a while by Moultrie, the Brit- 
ish finally concentrated their forces at Charleston, 
but badly provided as that city was for a siege, it 
held out for six weeks, until driven by famine to 
surrender. Moultrie was held a prisoner for two 
years, during which time he used all his influence 
in obtaining justice for his fellow-prisoners and 
the people of the country, and in vigorously keep- 
ing the enemy to the terms of the capitulation. 
Several attempts were made to induce him to 
resign his commission and enter the British ser- 
vice ; and finally he was offered large sums of 
money and command of a regiment in Jamaica, 
to which he sternly replied, "■ Not the fee simple 
of all Jamaica should induce me to part with my 
integrity." He was exchanged about the end of 
February, 1782, and promoted to the rank of major- 
general on the 15 th of October of the same year. 

When the British evacuated Charleston in De- 
cember, the American army under General Greene 
resumed possession of it, Moultrie holding a con- 
spicuous position in the triumphant procession. 

In 



SETH POMEROY. 77 

In 1785 and 1794, he was chosen Governor of 
South Carolina, discharging the duties of his office 
to the satisfaction of all. From the close of his 
second term until his death, which occurred in 
Charleston on the 27th of September, 1805, he 
enjoyed a well-earned and honorable repose. 

The famous Palmetto Fort on Sullivan's Island 
was constructed by Moultrie. The cannonade 
from the -'Admiral's Ship," the "Bristol," pro- 
duced little effect upon the fort, owing to the soft 
spongy palmetto-wood. After a nine-hours en- 
gagement. Sir Peter Parker withdrew, with his 
ship almost a wreck. 



SETH POMEROY. 

Seth PoiMEROY, born in Northampton, Massachu- 
setts, on the 20th of May, 1706, was an ingenious 
and skilful mechanic, following the trade of a gun- 
smith. He entered the military service early in 
Hfe, ranking as captain in 1744, and as major at 
the capture of Louisburg by the English in 1745. 
On the morning of the 17th of June, 1775, he 
entered Ward's camp at Cambridge as a volunteer, 
having heard the artillery at Charlestown and feel- 
ing it a personal summons. Borrowing a horse 

from 



78 DAVID WOOSTER. 

from General Ward, he eagerly pushed on, but 
reaching the Neck and finding it swept by the 
fire from the British sloop-of-war " Glasgow," lying 
in the harbor, he gave the horse to a sentry, and 
shouldering his gun, proceeded on foot, too hon- 
est to risk the Ufe of a borrowed animal. Upon 
reaching the hill, and taking his place with Stark 
behind the rail-fence, he was recognized and 
greeted with shouts all along the line. On the 
22d of June, 1775, Congress commissioned him 
senior brigadier-general ; but this causing some 
dissatisfaction among the seven others raised to 
the same rank at the same time, he declined his 
appointment, and soon after retired to his farm. 
In 1776, however, when New Jersey was overrun 
by the British, he marched at the head of the 
militia of his own neighborhood to the rescue of 
Washington. He reached the Hudson River, but 
never returned, dying at Peekskill, New York, on 
the 19th of February, 1777* 



DAVID WOOSTER. 

David Wooster, born in Stratford, Connecticut, 
on the 2d of March, 1710, graduated at Yale in 
1738. At the breaking out of the war between 

England 



DAVID WOOSTER. 79 

England and Spain in 1739, he entered the Pro- 
vincial army with the rank of lieutenant, but sub- 
sequently was given command of a vessel built 
and equipped by Connecticut for the defence of 
her coasts. In 1745, he took part in the expedi- 
tion against Louisburg as commander of the war 
vessel " Connecticut," which conveyed the troops 
to Cape Breton. The next year he visited Eng- 
land and was given a captain's commission with 
half-pay for life. Returning to America, he 
served through the French and Indian War; but 
when troubles began to arise between the Ameri- 
can colonies and the mother country, approving 
the demands of the former, and beUeving his 
allegiance was due to them, he resigned his 
commission in the British army in 1774? and 
was one of the originators of the expedition by 
which Fort Ticonderoga was captured in May, 

1775- 

With the organization of the Continental army, 
Wooster was made brigadier-general on the 2 2d 
of June, 1775, and ordered to join Montgomery 
in the Canadian expedition. On the death of 
that officer, the command for a time devolved 
upon Wooster, and he acquitted himself to the 
satisfaction of Congress. Returning to Connecti- 
cut, he resigned his commission in the Continental 
service, but was made major-general of the miHtia 
of his native State. During the winter of 1 776-77, 

he 



8o JOSEPH FRYE. 

he was employed in raising recruits and in pro- 
tecting the mihtary stores which had been col- 
lected at Danbury. On the 26th of April, 1777, 
Governor Tryon, at the head of two thousand 
British regulars, attacked the town, destroying the 
stores and retreating. Wooster and Arnold, col- 
lecting about six hundred militia, went in hot 
pursuit ; but the undisciplined recruits gave way 
before the British artillery. Wooster, endeavoring 
to rally his men, exclaimed, " Come on, my boys ! 
never mind such random shots ! '* when he was 
pierced through the body by a musket- ball. 
Carried back to Danbury, he lived but a few days, 
dying on the 2d of May, 1777. On the 17th of 
June, Congress passed appropriate resolutions, 
and voted $500 for the erection of a monument. 
This duty being neglected, the hero's grave soon 
became unknown. In 1854, a handsome monu- 
ment of Portland granite was erected to his 
memory in Danbury. 



JOSEPH FRYE. 

Joseph Frye, bom in Andover, Massachusetts, in 
April, 171 1, was enterprising and intelligent, and at 
an early age represented his town in the General 

Court 



JOHN ARMSTRONG. 8 1 

Court of the county. Entering the army, he was 
present at the siege of Louisburg and wrote the 
terms of the surrender. He was a colonel when 
Montcalm captured Fort William Henry in 1757. 
Being seized and stripped by an Indian, he was 
led away to torture ; but overpowering and killing 
his captor, Frye fled into the woods, succeeded in 
eluding the savages, and after several days reached 
a place of safety. In June, 1775, the Provincial 
Congress of Massachusetts appointed Colonel Frye 
a major-general, and the loth of January, 1776, 
Congress gave him the rank of brigadier- general 
in the Continental army. His age and infirmities, 
however, compelled him to retire soon after from 
active service. Removing with his family to the 
frontier of Maine, he founded the town of Fryeburg, 
and died there in 1794. 



JOHN ARMSTRONG. 

John Armstrong was born at Carlisle, Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1758. He was an aid on General 
Gates' staff, and served with him through the cam- 
paign against Burgoyne. On the ist of March, 
1776, he was appointed brigadier-general in the 
Continental service. In February, the following 
6 year, 



82 WILLIAM THOMPSON. 

year, hte received the appointment of adjutant- 
general of the Southern army, but in consequence 
of ill health was obliged to retire from the army 
for a time. After the war Armstrong was secre- 
tary of the State of Pennsylvania. In 1787 he was 
sent to Congress ; from 1800 to 1802 he was United 
States Senator, and again in 1803-18 10. From 
1813 to 1814 he was Secretary of War. He was 
censured for his lack of success in preventing the 
British from sacking Washington City in 18 14-15, 
and became very unpopular. He resigned in 18 14, 
retiring to Red Hook, New York, where he died 
April I, 1843. 



WILLIAM THOMPSON. 

William Thompson, bom in Ireland about 1725, 
emigrated to the State of Pennsylvania. During 
the French and Indian War he was captain of a 
troop of mounted militia, and when in June, 1775, 
Congress ordered the raising of eight companies 
of riflemen by the State of Pennsylvania, Thompson 
was appointed colonel of the battalion. These 
troops were the first raised on demand of the 
Continental Congress, and reached the camp at 
Cambridge before the 14th of August; and on the 

loth 



ANDREW LEWIS. Zt, 

1 0th of November following, they repulsed a Brit- 
ish landing party at Lechmere's Point. On the ist 
of March, 1776, Thompson was promoted to the 
rank of brigadier-general; and on the 19th he 
superseded Gen. Charles Lee in command of the 
troops in New York. In April, being ordered to 
Canada to reinforce General Thomas, he met the 
retreating army and took command during the fatal 
illness of that officer, but resigned it on the 4th 
of June to Gen. John Sullivan, by whose orders, 
two days later, Thompson made the disastrous 
attack on the British at Trois Rivieres, resulting in 
the defeat of the Americans, and the taking pris- 
oner of their general. Released on parole in 
August, Thompson returned to Philadelphia, but 
was not exchanged until two years later. He was 
never again actively employed in the service, but 
died near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on the 4th of 
September, 1781. 



ANDREW LEWIS. 

Andrew Lewis, bom in Donegal, Ireland, about 
1730, was of Huguenot descent, his father coming 
to this country in 1732, and being the first white 
resident in Bellefonte, Augusta County, Virginia. 
In 1 754, he joined an expedition to take possession 

of 



84 ANDREW LEWIS. 

of the lands lying along the Ohio, in which he 
acquired great reputation by his conduct at Brad- 
dock's defeat in 1755, and for the part he took in 
all the Indian wars down to the time of the Revo- 
lution. He served under Washington in various 
capacities, and was with him at Fort Necessity. 
He commanded an expedition to Sandy Creek in 
1756, and was made prisoner in 1758 and taken 
to Montreal. In 1768, he acted as commissioner 
from Virginia, to conclude a treaty with the Six 
Nations at Fort Stanwix, New York. '^A.bout 1775, 
when hostilities began again on the western frontier 
of Virginia, he received the appointment of briga- 
dier-general, and as commander-in-chief at the 
battle of Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Great 
Kanawha, gained a victory over the Shawnee con- 
federacy under the celebrated chief Cornstalk " 
in what was considered the severest engagement 
with the Indians up to that time. 

On the ist of March, 1776, Congress made 
Lewis a brigadier-general, much to the surprise 
and disappointment of Washington, who consid- 
ered him entitled to a higher rank; and Lewis 
himself felt that he had been slighted, but his 
patriotism triumphed, and he accepted the infe- 
rior position. Ill health, however, caused him to 
tender his resignation on the 15 th of April, 1777; 
but afterward he accepted a commission to treat 
with the Indians at Fort Pitt. On his way home 

from 



JAMES MOORE. 85 

from the Ohio, he was seized with a fever, and 
died in Bedford County, Virginia, on the 26th 
of September, 1780, when only forty miles from 
his home on the Roanoke River. His statue 
occupies one of the pedestals at the base of the 
Washington monument in Richmond. 



JAMES MOORE. 

James Moore, born in New Hanover, North Caro- 
lina, in 1737, was a lineal descendant of the 
Marquis of Drogheda, Ireland. He was a captain 
of artillery under Governor Tryon at the defeat of 
the Regulators at Alamance in 1771, and colonel 
of the first regiment of North Carolina troops that 
was raised for the defence of that State. In Feb- 
ruary, 1776, he was in command of the force a 
part of which, under Col. John A. Lillington 
and Col. Richard Caswell, won the first victory 
in the Revolution, at Moore's Creek bridge near 
Wilmington, North Carolina, over fifteen hundred 
Scotch Tories. For this exploit he was promoted 
to be brigadier-general, March i, 1776, made 
commander-in-chief of the Southern Department, 
and received the thanks of Congress. His military 
career, opening with such promise, was of short 

duration, 



86 BARON DE WOEDTKE. 

duration, as he fell a victim to climatic fever, dying 
on the 15th of January, 1777, at Wilmington, while 
on his way to join Washington. 



BARON DE WOEDTKE. 

Frederick William, Baron de Woedtke, born in 
Prussia about 1 740, was for many years an officer 
in the army of Frederick the Great, where he at- 
tained the rank of major. Coming to Philadelphia 
with strong letters of recommendation to Benjamin 
Franklin from friends of America in Paris, he re- 
ceived from Congress a commission as brigadier- 
general in the Continental army on the i6th of 
March, 1776, and was ordered to join the Northern 
army under Schuyler. About three weeks before 
his death he took part in a council of war which 
decided, against the advice of Stark, Poor, Maxwell, 
and eighteen inferior officers, to abandon Crown 
Point and to retire to the strong ground opposite 
Ticonderoga, afterward known as Mount Indepen- 
dence. He died near Lake George, New York, 
on the 31st of July, 1776, and was buried with the 

hnnnrc: (\^^p^ to hiq rank. 



JOHN WHITCOMB. 87 



JOHN WHITCOMB. 

John Whitcomb, born in Lancaster, Worcester 
County, Massachusetts, in 1720, served with dis- 
tinction in the French and Indian War. On ac- 
count of his advanced age, he was not called into 
service at the beginning of the Revolution ; but his 
soldiers were so much attached to him that they 
would serve under no other commander. His 
appeals to their patriotism being unavailing to keep 
them in the army, he determined to join the ranks 
as a volunteer ; but Colonel Brewster, his succes- 
sor, learning his willingness to serve, relinquished 
the command of the regiment, and Colonel Whit- 
comb continued with it until he was made a briga- 
dier-general, June 5, 1776, when he succeeded 
General Ward in charge of the troops in Boston. 
On the 13th of the same month he was made 
major-general. Soon after, he was permitted to 
resign ; but he lived to see our independence firmly 
estabhshed, and died in 18 12. 



S8 HUGH MERCER. 



HUGH MERCER. 



Hugh Mercer, bom in Aberdeen, Scotland, in 
1720, entered the army of Prince Charles Edward 
as assistant- surgeon, in 1 745. The battle of Cullo- 
den, April 16, 1746, resulted in the total defeat 
of that unfortunate prince, sending him into exile, 
a proscribed wanderer, and scattering or extermi- 
nating his devoted followers. Emigrating to this 
country the following year, Mercer settled in 
Franklin County, Pennsylvania, and in 1755 fought 
his first battle in America under the leadership of 
John Armstrong and with the rank of captain. At 
the battle of Kittanning in 1756, he was severely 
wounded; in 1758, as lieutenant-colonel he took 
part in the capture of Fort Duquesne, and was 
left in command of that important post. It was 
during this expedition that he became acquainted 
with Washington ; and in 1 775, a few days after the 
battle of Lexington, Mercer was among the first to 
appeal to his former comrade-in-arms for instruc- 
tions as to the disposition of the Virginia troops, 
then arming in the cause of liberty. June 5, 1776, 
Congress appointed him a brigadier-general ; and a 
few days later he joined the army at New York and 
entered the Continental service, under the imme- 
diate orders of the commander-in-chief. Gloomy 
forebodings filled the mind of even the stanchest 

patriots 



HUGH MERCER. 89 

patriots, as defeat followed defeat, and Washington 
with his brave band retreated through the Jerseys. 

In December, at a council of war, a change of 
policy was agreed upon, and the unexpected and 
successful attack upon Trenton was the result, 
Mercer rendering most efficient service. The 
British, however, gathering their forces, made ready 
to retaliate ; and the cause of Kberty seemed lost, 
when Mercer boldly suggested by a night march 
to surprise them in their stronghold at Princeton. 
His advice was acted upon ; but in that memorable 
battle — a battle that did more to secure us our in- 
dependence than any other during the war — the 
brave General Mercer lost his life. Dismounted 
by the death of his horse, and separated from his 
command, disdaining to surrender, he met single- 
handed a detachment of the enemy, and was beaten 
to the earth by the butts of their muskets and 
stabbed by their bayonets. Carried by his aid 
from the battle-field to a neighboring house, he 
lingered for nine days in great agony, expiring on 
the 1 2th of January, 1777. His remains were 
taken to Philadelphia, where his funeral was at- 
tended by thirty thousand people. St. Andrew's 
Society of that city have erected a monument to 
his memory at Laurel Hill Cemetery. Mercer 
County, Kentucky, was named in his honor. 



90 JOSEPH REED. 



JOSEPH REED. 

Joseph Reed, born in Wobum, Middlesex County, 
Massachusetts, in 1724, served during the French 
and Indian War. In 1765, he settled at Fitzwil- 
liam. New Hampshire. When news of the battle 
of Lexington reached this peaceful neighborhood, 
he volunteered with many of his neighbors, and 
marched away to the camp at Cambridge, reach- 
ing there in time to participate in the battle of 
Bunker Hill, where with John Stark and the left 
wing of the army, posted behind a rail-fence, he 
aided in keeping the British at bay and covering 
the retreat of the main body from the redoubt. 
In 1776, he was ordered to join the reinforcements 
under Sullivan, marching to the relief of the Amer- 
ican army in Canada. Reed, with many others, was 
attacked by small- pox, and after a long illness rose 
from his bed incapacitated for further active service. 
Congress, on the 9th of August, 1 776, promoted him 
to the rank of brigadier-general, and he retained 
command for a while, hoping to regain his health and 
strength. Finding himself, however, unfit for duty, 
he retired shortly after on half- pay, and returned 
home nearly deaf and blind. He passed the remain- 
der of his life in Fitzwilliam, enjoying the esteem 
and respect of all who knew him, and died at Fitch- 
burg, Massachusetts, on the 13th of February, 1807. 



JOHN NIXON. 91 



JOHN NIXON. 

John Nixon, born on the 4th of March, 1725, at 
Farmington, Massachusetts, entered the British 
army at the age of twenty, taking part in the expe- 
dition against Cape Breton and in the French and 
Indian War. He commanded a company of min- 
ute-men at Lexington, and a regiment at the battle 
of Bunker Hill. On the 9th of August, 1776, he 
received the appointment of brigadier-general. 
He was in active service until 1780, when ill health, 
and the effects of a severe wound received at 
Bunker Hill, compelled his resignation. He died 
on the 24th of March, 181 5, at the ripe age of 
ninety. 



JAMES CLINTON. 

James Clinton, born on the 13th of August, 1 736, at 
the family residence, in what is now Orange County, 
New York, received an excellent education under 
the supervision of his father, paying much attention 
to the exact sciences, and early evincing that taste 
for military enterprise which he inherited from his 
English ancestors. In 1756, he received the ap- 
pointment of ensign in the militia, and remaining 
in the army after the peace of 1 763, steadily rose 

by 



92 JAMES CLINTON. 

by promotion to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. 
At the close of the French and Indian War, he 
married Miss Mary de Witt, a lady of great per- 
sonal attractions and a descendant of an old 
Holland family. In June, 1775, renouncing his alle- 
giance to Great Britain, he was appointed colonel of 
the Third New York Regiment, and joined Mont- 
gomery in the expedition against Canada. August 
9, 1776, he was raised to the rank of briga- 
dier-general, and served to the close of the war, 
faithfully discharging the duties of the several 
stations he was called upon to fill. With his 
brother. Gov. George Clinton, he conducted the 
defence of Fort Clinton in October, 1777, until 
overpowered by vastly superior numbers, and then 
escaped, though severely wounded, by sliding down 
a precipice of a hundred feet to a shallow stream. 
Wading for some distance up the stream, he threw 
his pursuers off the scent. In 1779, having joined 
General Sullivan in an expedition against the In- 
dians, he materially aided by a clever, engineering 
feat in the rapid transportation of the troops. 
Though stationed during most of the war in com- 
mand of the Northern Department at Albany, he 
took part during the siege of Yorktown and the 
surrender of Cornwallis. After the evacuation of 
the city of New York by the British, he took leave 
of his commander-in-chief and retired to his home 
in Orange County. Subsequently he held various 

civil 



CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN. 93 

civil positions of trust and responsibility, and died 
on the 2 2d of September, 1812, at his residence in 
his native State. 



CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN. 

Christopher Gadsden, born in Charleston, South 
Carolina, in 1724, was sent to England at an early 
age to receive his education. Returning to America 
in 1 741, he was placed in a Philadelphia counting- 
house, where he acquired methodical and strict 
business habits. Upon attaining his majority, he 
revisited England. Returning in a man-of-war, 
and the purser dying suddenly, the position was 
offered to him. He accepted the appointment, 
remained in the navy two years, and resigned to 
engage in commercial life on his own account in 
Philadelphia. Such was his success that he was 
soon able to buy back the estate in South Carolina 
which his father had lost in 1733 at play with 
Admiral Lord Anson. Leaving the North, he took 
up his residence in the South as a planter, and 
finally became a factor. 

In 1759, when the outrages perpetrated by the 
Cherokee Indians called for vigorous measures, 
Gadsden joined the expedition under Governor 
Lyttleton, organized an artillery company, and in- 
troduced the first piece of field ordnance into the 

colony. 



94 CHRISTOPHER GADSDEN. 

colony. Thoroughly republican in his political 
views, and with a mind capable of looking far ahead 
for the results of present measures, he was the first 
to anticipate the struggle that would surely be the 
outcome of Great Britain's oppressive policy toward 
her American colonies. In 1765, when the project 
of the general Congress in this country was con- 
ceived, he was one of the first and most active mem- 
bers. In 1775, he resigned his seat to accept the 
appointment of colonel in the First South Carolina 
Regiment. On the i6th of September, 1776, Con- 
gress raised him to the rank of brigadier-general. 
The brilliant victory at Fort Moultrie secured to his 
native State for several years an immunity from the 
perils and hardships of war, and he resigned his 
commission on the 2d of October, 1777. 

With the cessation of military duties, Gadsden 
resumed his legislative cares ; and being Lieutenant- 
Governor of South Carolina at the time of General 
Lincoln's surrender of Charleston, he was seized 
with twenty-eight others and taken in a prison-ship 
to St. Augustine, Florida. Here he was kept in the 
castle dungeon for ten months ; but beguiling the 
time by the study of Hebrew, he emerged from 
captivity a much more learned man than when he 
entered it. The success of Greene in the South 
brought him release in 1781. Upon returning to 
South Carolina he was at once elected to the Assem- 
bly, and soon after chosen governor. The latter 

honor 



LACHLAN MCINTOSH. 95 

honor he declined, declaring the " State needed a 
man in the vigor and prime of life." At the close of 
the war he retired to private life ; but from time to 
time and on more than one occasion he continued 
to take part in public affairs. He died in his native 
city on the 28th of August, 1805, from the results 
of a fall. 



LACHLAN McINTOSH. 

Lachlan McIntosh, born near Inverness, Scot- 
land, on the 17th of March, 1727, emigrated 
with his family to America in 1736 and settled in 
Georgia. His early education was but limited, and 
at the age of seventeen, being thrown upon his own 
resources by the death of his father, he removed to 
Charleston, South Carolina, and entered a counting- 
house as clerk. After several years, however, he 
adopted the calling of land surveyor, married, and 
returned to Georgia, employing his spare time in 
the study of civil engineering and military tactics. 
Having gained the confidence and esteem of his 
fellow-citizens, when hostilities began with Great 
Britain he was made colonel-commander of the 
Georgia troops, and on the i6th of September, 
1776, promoted by Congress to be brigadier- 
general. In 1777, he was employed for a consid- 
erable time in watching the motions of General 

Howe 



90 WILLIAM MAXWELL, 

Howe in Philadelphia. In 1778, he headed an ex- 
pedhion against the Indian tribes along the Ohio, 
and succeeded in giving repose to all western Penn- 
sylvania and Virginia. In 1779, he joined General 
Lincoln in the invasion of Georgia, which proving 
unsuccessful, the Americans retreated to Charles- 
ton, South Carolina, where they were besieged and 
obliged to surrender on the 12th of May, 1780. 

General Mcintosh was held a prisoner for a long 
period, and when he was released, the war was 
practically over. On the 30th of September, 1783, 
he became major-general by brevet, and retired to 
his home in Georgia. In 1784, he served as 
member of Congress, and the next year as a 
commissioner to treat with the Southern Indians. 
The war, however, depreciated the value of his 
real estate, so that his latter years were passed in 
comparative poverty and retirement. He died in 
Savannah on the 20th of February, 1806, in the 
seventy-ninth year of his age. 



WILLIAM MAXWELL. 

William Maxwell, though little is known of his 
personal history, is believed to have been born in 
Ireland, and brought to New Jersey in his early 
life. He entered the colonial service in 1758, 

serving 



ROCHE DE FERMOY. 97 

serving through the French and Indian War, and 
as colonel of one of the New Jersey regiments, 
took part in the disastrous campaign of 1776 in 
Canada. On the 23d of October of that year 
he was commissioned brigadier-general. He was 
with Schuyler on Lake Champlain, and later was 
attached to the main army under Washington. In 
August, 1779, he joined Sullivan's expedition against 
the Indians, but soon after the action at Springfield, 
he sent in his resignation, which was accepted by 
Congress on the 25th of July, 1780. Washington 
said of him, " I believe him to be an honest man, 
a warm friend to his country, and firmly attached 
to its interests." He died on the 12th of Novem- 
ber, 1798. 



MATTHIAS ALEXIS ROCHE DE FERMOY. 

Matthias Alexis Roche de Feri^ioy, born in 
the West Indies in 1737, was the thirty- fourth on 
the list of Continental brigadier- generals, his com- 
mission bearing date the 5th of November, 1776. 
On coming to this country and offering his services 
to Congress, Fermoy represented himself to be a 
colonel of engineers in the French army. While 
serving under Washington in the Trenton and 
Princeton campaigns, he was ordered on the i st of 
January, 1777, to hold an advanced post on Mile 
7 Run, 



98 ENOCH POOR. 

Run, beyond Maidenhead, now Lawrenceville. 
That same night, however, leaving his command, 
he returned to Trenton, — a breach of discipHne that 
under the circumstances was most reprehensible. 
Ordered North to join the army under Gates, by 
direction of Congress, and notwithstanding a protest 
from Washington, he was placed in command of 
Fort Independence, opposite Fort Ticonderoga. 
When St. Clair found it necessary to abandon the 
latter post, Fermoy, in defiance of the express 
orders of the commanding officer, set fire to his 
quarters on Mount Independence at two o'clock on 
the morning of the 6th of July, 1777, thus revealing 
to Burgoyne St. Clair's retreat, which otherwise 
would have been accomplished in safety. In 
December, he appHed for promotion to the rank of 
major-general, — a request which Congress refused. 
Displeased at this action, Fermoy requested per- 
mission to resign, which was granted on the 31st of 
January, 1778, Congress at the same time appropri- 
ating $800 to pay his debts and enable him to 
return to the West Indies. 



ENOCH POOR. 

Enoch Poor, born in Andover, Massachusetts, on 
the 2ist of June, 1736, was educated in the 
common schools of his native place. Removing to 

Exeter, 



ENOCH POOR. 99 

Exeter, New Hampshire, he engaged m commercial 
pursuits until summoned by his country, to take up 
arms in her defence. Immediately after the battle 
of Lexington, three regiments of militia were raised 
and equipped in New Hampshire, and the com- 
mand of one intrusted to Poor. Serving first in 
New England, then in New York, and afterward 
joining in the ill-starred Canadian expedition, he 
used all his influence to dissuade General Schuyler 
from abandoning Crown Point, and when that 
measure was decided upon, joined with several 
other officers in sending him a written protest. 
Considering this a breach of discipline, Schuyler 
appealed to the commander-in-chief, who, while de- 
clining to reverse the general's decision, wrote him 
a private letter, approving Colonel Poor's judg- 
ment, and regretting the abandonment of Crown 
Point, which he considered the key of the lakes. 
On the 2ist of February, 1777, Poor was com- 
missioned brigadier-general and attached to the 
army under Washington. In 1779, he joined the 
expedition against the Six Nations and subse- 
quently was attached to Lee's command, remaining 
with him until after the defeat at Monmouth, when 
Poor was ordered to join the division under 
Lafayette. The following year he fell a victim to 
fever, dying, after a short illness, at Hackensack, 
New Jersey, on the 8th of September, 17S0. 
Washington, in acquainting Congress with the sad 

intelligence, 



100 JOHN GLOVER. 

intelligence, said of him, " He was an officer of 
distinguished merit, who as a citizen and a soldier 
had every claim to the esteem of his country ; " and 
Lafayette, on revisiting this country many years 
after, testified his loving remembrance by pay- 
ing a tribute to the memory of Poor when called 
upon for a toast. 



JOHN GLOVER. 

John Glover, born in Salem, Massachusetts, on 
the 5th of November, 1732, joined the army under 
Washington in 1775, with a regiment of a thousand 
men raised in the district about his native town. 
Being composed almost entirely of Marblehead fish- 
ermen, it was known as the " amphibious regiment," 
and was one of the finest in the whole Continental 
service. It was at first the Twenty-first, and after 
the reorganization of the army the Fourteenth, 
Massachusetts Regiment. It was this body of men, 
under the command of Glover, that manned the 
boats and transported the entire main army in safety 
on the retreat from Long Island in 1775, and that 
manned the boats and led the advance when the 
commander-in-chief crossed the Delaware on that 
memorable 25th of December, 1776. When Con- 
gress, on the 2ist of February, 1777, conferred 
upon Glover the rank of brigadier-general, he 

would 



JOHN PATER SON. lOI 

would have declined, fearing he could not dis- 
charge with credit the duties of that position. 
Being reassured by Washington, however, he 
accepted, and by his subsequent conduct justified 
that general's estimate of his abilities. He was a 
member of the Andre court of inquiry which 
assembled on Sept. 29, 1780, at which Nathaniel 
Greene presided. He remained in active service 
throughout the war, earning the good opinion of all 
who knew him, and died at Marblehead on the 
30th of January, i797- 



JOHN PATERSON. 

John Paterson, bom in New Britain, Connecti- 
cut, in 1744, graduated at Yale College in 1762, 
taught school, practised law, and was justice of 
the peace in his native town. Removing to Lenox, 
Massachusetts, he was elected a member of the 
first Provincial Congress of that State, which met at 
Salem in October, 1774 ; and of the second, whose 
place of meeting was Cambridge, in February, 1775. 
Deeply interested in the welfare of his country, he 
busied himself in enrolling and organizing a regi- 
ment of minute-men, composed of eight months' 
volunteers. Eighteen hours after the news of the 
battle of Lexington reached them, this regiment, 

armed 



I02 JAMES MITCHELL VARNUM. 

armed and mostly in uniform, marched away to 
Boston, and upon their arrival were employed in 
constructing the first American redoubt on the 
lines about the city. In the battle which followed 
they manned and gallantly defended this outwork. 
After the evacuation of the city, Colonel Paterson 
was ordered to Canada, and after some active 
service in the North joined Washington just in time 
to cross the Delaware and take part in the battles 
of Trenton and Princeton. Feb. 21, 1777, he was 
made brigadier-general, and being attached to the 
Northern Department, was present at the surrender 
of Burgoyne, and remained in service to the close 
of the war. In 1786, he aided in quelling Shays' 
Rebellion in Massachusetts ; he was presiding judge 
of Broome County, New York, and spent the last 
years of his life quietly on his farm, dying on the 
19th of July, 1808, at Lisle, now Whitney's Point, 
New York. 



JAMES MITCHELL VARNUM. 

James Mitchell Varnum, born in Dracut, Massa- 
chusetts, in 1 748, graduated with a high reputation 
for scholarship in 1769, at the age of twenty, from 
Rhode Island College, now Brown University. He 
adopted the law as his profession, was admitted to 
the Bar, and rapidly acquired an extensive and 

lucrative 



JAMES MITCHELL VARNUM. 1 03 

lucrative practice. Reading the signs of the times 
aright, and feeUng that soon there must be an 
appeal to arms, he joined the " Kentish Guards," 
and in 1774 was made commander. Soon after 
the battle of Lexington, he entered the Continen- 
tal service as colonel ; and on the 21st of February, 
1777, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier- 
general. With undoubted military ability, he en- 
joyed few opportunities of distinguishing himself, 
though assigned several important commands. He 
passed the winter of 1777-78 with Washington at 
Valley Forge, and in the spring proposed the 
raising of a battalion of negroes in Rhode Island ; 
the State Legislature acceded, and passed an act 
giving absolute freedom to every slave who should 
enter the service and pass muster. 

On the 5th of March, 1 779, Varnum resigned his 
commission, there being a greater number of gen- 
eral officers than was required for the army ; but 
soon after, he was elected major-general of the mi- 
litia of his native State, retaining that position until 
his death. He was twice elected to Congress, and 
in 1788 removed to Marietta, Ohio, having been 
appointed one of the judges of the Supreme Court 
of the Northwest Territory. He was a member of 
the Society of the Cincinnati. Death put an end 
to his brief but brilliant career on the loth of 
January, 1789. 



I04 ANTHONY WAYNE. 



ANTHONY WAYNE. 



Anthony Wayne, born Jan. i, 1745, in the town- 
ship of Easttown, Chester County, Pennsylvania, 
was of Irish parentage. In boyhood he showed 
the mihtary bias of his aspirations by his close study 
of mathematics and engineering, that he might fit 
himself to enter the army. From his marriage, in 
1767, to 1774, his occupation was that of a farmer 
and land surveyor ; in 1 774-75 he was a member of 
the Pennsylvania Legislature, and in the latter year, 
of the Committee of Public Safety. The oppressive 
policy adopted by Great Britain toward the Ameri- 
can colonies aroused all his military spirit ; and 
resigning his seat in the Legislature, he raised a 
company of volunteers, and received from Con- 
gress on the 3d of January, 1776, his commission 
as colonel. Increasing his company to a regiment, 
he was ordered with it to New York and afterward 
to Canada. The 21st of February, 1777, marks 
the date of his promotion to brigadier-general, and 
in May, having joined the army under Washington, 
he distinguished himself by driving the enemy from 
New Jersey. His skill as a commander, and his 
personal courage, secured him a conspicuous part 
in the battles that followed ; and being intrusted 
with a foraging expedition to relieve the destitute 
army in winter-quarters at Valley Forge, he secured 

large 



ANTHONY WAYNE. I05 

large stores of provisions and many horses for the 
cavalry, at the same time defeating the enemy in 
numerous skirmishes. 

At the battle of Monmouth, Wayne's brave con- 
duct gained for him personal notice in the report 
sent by Washington to Congress, while his brilliant 
achievement at Stony Point was recognized by a 
resolution of thanks in Congress, and in the Gen- 
eral Assembly of Pennsylvania. After rendering 
other important services in the North, reaUzing 
what had been said of him early in the war, that 
'' where Wayne went, there was a fight always, — 
that was his business," he was sent in 1781 to join 
the Southern army, and was actively engaged in 
the siege of Yorktown until the final surrender. 
The efforts of the Americans were now directed to 
dislodging the British from their two remaining 
strongholds ; and so vigorously was the war carried 
on in Georgia and South Carolina that by direction 
of the home Government Savannah was evacuated 
on the i2th of July, 1782, and Charleston in the 
latter part of the same year, Wayne marching in 
and taking possession on the 14th of December, — 
his last military service during the Revolution. In 
July, 1783, he returned to his home and civil hfe. 
On the 30th of September, he was appointed major- 
general by brevet; in April, 1792, President Wash- 
ington nominated him commander-in-chief of an 
army to subdue the Indians of the Northwest ; and 

after 



Io6 ANTHONY WAYNE. 

after the delays consequent upon organizing and 
disciplining his men, Wayne began active opera- 
tions in 1 794, resulting in the complete discomfit- 
ure of the savage tribes and their British allies. 
This victory brought valuable territory to the United 
States, and a long peace with the Indians. After a 
visit to his home, he returned to the West to fulfil 
his duties as commissioner, and died soon after 
from an attack of gout on the 15 th of December, 
1796, ** after a life of honor and usefulness." 

No general ever gained more sobriquets than 
Wa}Tie ; that most widely known, " Mad Anthony," 
was given on account of his unexpected success in 
perilous expeditions, though Washington called him 
" prudent." The title of '' Dandy Wayne " was 
also applied to him because of his scrupulous at- 
tention to his dress ; and in a letter to Washington 
he declares his preference for an elegant uniform 
and soldierly appearance, rather than poorly clad 
troops with more ammunition. The Indians at 
first called him " Black Snake," perhaps because 
that reptile will attack any other species and rarely 
gets the worst of an encounter. After he defeated 
them in 1794, however, they named him "Wind," 
or "Tornado," because " he was exactly like a hur- 
ricane that drives and tears and prostrates every- 
thing before it." 



JOHN PHILIP DE HAAS. IO7 



JOHN PHILIP DE HAAS. 

John Philip de Haas, bom in Holland about 1735, 
belonged to an ancient family of northern France. 
In 1750, he removed with his father to the United 
States, settling in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. 
He served as ensign during the French and In- 
dian War, taking part in Bouquet's battle with 
the Indians at Bushy Run near Pittsburg, August 
5 and 6, 1763. In 1776, he was appointed 
colonel of the First Pennsylvania Regiment, and 
assisted in the Canada campaign and at Ticon- 
deroga. After the battle of Long Island, he was 
promoted to be brigadier- general on the 21st of 
February, 1777, and served in that rank to the 
close of the war. The remainder of his life was 
spent in Philadelphia, where he died on the 3d 
of June, 1795. 



JOHN PETER MUHLENBURG. 

John Peter Muhlenburg, born in Trappe, Penn- 
sylvania, on the ist of October, 1746, was the son 
of Reverend Henry Melchior Muhlenburg, D.D., 
the founder of the Lutheran Church in America. At 
the age of sixteen he was sent to Germany to be edu- 
cated, but while at Halle enhsted in a regiment of 

dragoons, 



I08 JOHN PETER MUHLENBERG. 

dragoons, from which he was released through 
the intervention of friends. Returning to this 
country in 1766, he studied theology with his 
father, and was for a time pastor of the Lutheran 
churches in New Germantown and Bedminster, 
New Jersey. In 1772, he accepted a call to a 
church of the same denomination in Woodstock, 
Virginia ; but finding he could not enforce the 
payment of tithes unless he had received Episco- 
pal ordination, he went to England to secure this, 
and returning, continued his labors in the same 
State. Watching with keenest interest the train 
of events, he educated his congregation as well 
as himself for the duties of freemen, which he 
believed would soon devolve upon them. In 
1775, at the earnest sohcitations of Washington, 
to whom his ardent patriotism and military spirit 
were well known, he resolved to abandon his 
pulpit and enter the army. He took leave of 
his congregation in an eloquent sermon on the 
text, " The Lord of hosts shall arm the right," 
and concluded, after rehearsing the wrongs this 
country had suffered from Great Britain, by ex- 
claiming, " There is a time for all things, — a time 
to preach and a tiaie to pray; but there is also 
a time to fight, and that time has now come;" 
and throwing off his gown, he appeared in com- 
plete uniform. By his orders the drum and fife 
of the recruiting officer at this moment sounded 

at 



FRANCIS NASH. IO9 

at the church door, and over three hundred of his 
congregation enUsted and marched Avith their 
former pastor at their head to the reUef of 
Charleston, South CaroHna. 

Muhlenburg's war record includes the battles of 
Sullivan's Island, Brandywine, Germantown, Mon- 
mouth, Stony Point, and Yorktown, his commission 
as brigadier-general in the Continental army bear- 
ing date the 21st of February, 1777. At the close 
of the Revolution he was elected to the Pennsyl- 
vania council, and in 1785 became vice-president 
of the State, with Benjamin Franklin as president. 
After the organization of the federal Government 
he acted as representative and senator, was ap- 
pointed by President Jefferson supervisor of the 
revenue for the district of Pennsylvania, and in 
1803 collector of the port of Philadelphia. While 
holding this office, he died near Schuylkill, Mont- 
gomery County, on the ist of October, 1807, — 
the anniversary of his birthday.- 



FRANCIS NASH. 

Francis Nash, born in Prince George's County, 
Virginia, on the loth of March, 1720, was clerk 
of the Superior Court of Orange County, North 
Carolina, and holding a captain's commission also 

under 



no GEORGE WEEDON. 

under the crown, helped to defeat the Regulators 
at the battle of Alamance in 1771. These insur- 
gents had banded together for the avowed purpose 
of shutting up the courts of justice, destroying all 
officers of law and all lawyers, and prostrating the 
Government itself. In August, 1775, he received 
a commission as colonel from the North Carohna 
Convention, and on the 5th of February, 1777, 
entered the Continental service as brigadier-gen- 
eral, joining the army under Washington. At the 
battle of Germantown, on the 4th of October of 
the same year, while at the head of his brigade, 
he was mortally wounded, dying a few days after. 
In November of that year. Congress passed a reso- 
lution to erect a monument to his memory at a 
cost of ^500 ; but the resolution was never carried 
into effect. 



GEORGE WEEDON. 

George Weedon, born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, 
1730, was an innkeeper in his native town, and a 
zealous patriot. Entering the army near the be- 
ginning of the Revolution in 1776, he held the 
rank of Heutenant-colonel, and was commissioned 
brigadier-general by the Continental Congress on 
the 2 1 St of February, 1777. He took part 
in the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, 

in 



JOHN CADWALADER. in 

in the former co-operating with General Greene 
in checking the British pursuit, and rallying the 
retreating American troops. He retired from the 
army on the i8th of August, 1778, owing to a 
disagreement with General Woodford on the 
question of supremacy in rank. In 1780, how- 
ever, he resumed command of his brigade, and 
in 1 781, during the siege of Yorktown, had charge 
of the Virginia Militia stationed at Gloucester. 
He died in Fredericksburg about the year 1790. 



JOHN CADWALADER. 

John Cadwalader, born in Philadelphia, Jan. 10, 
1 743. began early in life to take an active part in 
public affairs. He was a member of the Philadel- 
phia Committee of Safety, and captain of a military 
organization, half admiringly and half derisively 
dubbed by the citizens the " Silk Stocking Com- 
pany," nearly every member of which subse- 
quently held a commission in the patriot army. 
On the formation of the city battalions, he was. 
placed in command of one of them. When 
Washington, after his retreat through the Jerseys, 
established himself on the Pennsylvania side of the 
Delaware River, opposite Trenton, Cadwalader, at 
the head of fifteen hundred mihtia-men, marched 

to 



112 JOHN CADWALADER, 

to his assistance. January, 1777, Washington urged 
upon Congress the appointment of Cadwalader to 
the Continental army, describing him as "a man 
of abihty, a good discipHnarian, firm in his prin- 
ciples, and of intrepid bravery." On the 21st of 
February, 1777, he was offered the commission of 
brigadier-general, but declined, preferring to re- 
main in the Provincial service. During this year 
he took part in the battles of Brandywine and 
Germantown, and at the request of Washington as- 
sisted in organizing the Maryland Militia. 

After the discovery and frustration of the " Con- 
way cabal " and the consequent disgrace of its 
author, Cadwalader became cognizant of some 
offensive remarks made by Conway concerning 
Washington, and called the disparager of the com- 
mander-in-chief to account. Conway refusing to 
retract, Cadwalader challenged him, and in the 
duel which followed, though escaping injury him- 
self, shot Conway in the mouth. Again in Septem- 
ber, 1778, Congress offered him the appointment 
of brigadier-general ; and again he declined, stat- 
ing his belief that the war was almost at an end. 
When the war was at last ended, he removed to 
Maryland, was elected to the State Legislature, 
and died in Shrewsbury, Pennsylvania, on the 
nth of February, 1786, in the forty-fourth year 
of his age. 



WILLIAM WOODFORD. 1 13 



WILLIAM WOODFORD. 

William Woodford, born in Caroline County, 
Virginia, in 1735, served with credit in the French 
and Indian War, and was appointed colonel of the 
second regiment raised by his native State in 1775. 
Evincing considerable military ability, and gaining 
a decided victory at the battle of Great Bridge, 
where he was in command, upon the recommenda- 
tion of Washington he was made brigadier-general 
in the Continental army, Feb. 21, 1777. At the 
battle of Brandywine, he was severely wounded 
in the hand. Having been ordered to the South 
in 1779, he was taken prisoner by the British at 
C\ arleston. May 21, 1780 ; and being sent to New 
York that summer, he died there on the 13th of 
November of the same year. 



GEORGE CLINTON. 

George Clinton, born on the 26th of July, 1 739, in 
Little Britain, Ulster County, New York, was of Eng- 
lish extraction, his father having emigrated to this 
country in 1729. In early life he evinced his love 
of enterprise and adventure by leaving home to 
sail in a privateer. Upon his return he joined the 
8 English 



114 GEORGE CLINTON. 

English troops in the French and Indian War; 
but when peace was restored, he left the army and 
entered upon the study of the law. Gaining rep- 
utation in his profession, he was chosen in 1768 a 
representative to the Colonial Assembly and after- 
ward, in 1775, to the Continental Congress. He 
voted for the Declaration of Independence ; but 
the invasion of New York by the enemy, and the 
trouble and excitement engendered by the Loyal- 
ists, caused him to be summoned home before that 
famous document was ready for the signatures. 
Having been appointed brigadier-general of the 
New York Militia in July, 1776, he served in that 
capacity until the 25 th of March, 1777, when he was 
transferred to the Continental army with the same 
rank ; and the unfinished defences along the Hud- 
son were committed to his care. On the 6th of 
October these fortresses were stormed, and at last, 
on account of their unfinished condition and the 
smallness of the garrison, had to be abandoned, 
General Clinton and many of the Americans es- 
caping under cover of the night. 

General Clinton was elected first Governor of 
New York State in 1 777. With great executive and 
much military ability, he continued to fill his doubly 
responsible position ; and the public records of that 
period bear witness to the extent and value of his 
services. In 1 786, a large body of malcontents, hav- 
ing been discomfited in Massachusetts, took refuge 

in 



EDWARD HAND. II5 

in New York. Governor Clinton marched promptly 
to their encampment with two regiments, and in less 
than twelve hours the rebel army was dispersed 
and the leaders brought to justice. In 1788, he 
presided at the convention at Poughkeepsie when 
the federal Constitution was ratified. After five 
years of private life, he was again elected to the 
Legislature, and in 1801 was again chosen gov- 
ernor, holding that office until 1804, when he was 
elected to the vice-presidency of the United States. 
He filled this office until his death, which occurred 
in Washington on the 20th of April, 181 2. 



EDWARD HAND. 

Edward Hand, born in Clyduff, King's County, 
Ireland, Dec. 31, 1744, came to this country in 
1774 with the Eighteenth Royal Irish Regulars as 
surgeon's mate. Upon reaching America, he re- 
signed his position, settled in Pennsylvania, and 
began the practice of medicine. The following 
year, however, found him taking part in the great 
strife, as lieutenant-colonel in Thompson's Regi- 
ment. March i, 1776, he was promoted to be a 
colonel, and took part with his regiment in the 
battles of Long Island and Trenton. April i, 
1777, he was advanced to the rank of brigadier- 
general j 



Il6 CHARLES SCOTT. 

general; in October, 1778, he succeeded General 
Stark at Albany, and in 1780 commanded one 
brigade of the light infantry. At the end of the 
year he was appointed adjutant-general, and held 
that post until the close of the war, gaining the 
approbation of Washington. In 1784-85, he was a 
member of Congress, and in 1790 a signer of the 
Pennsylvania Constitution. In 1798, anticipating 
a war with France, Washington recommended the 
appointment of Hand as adjutant-general. He 
died at Rockford in Lancaster County, Pennsyl- 
vania, on the 3d of September, 1802. During 
the Revolution he was distinguished for his fine 
horsemanship and his daring spirit ; but he won 
the affection of his troops by his amiability and 
gentleness. 



CHARLES SCOTT. 

Charles Scott, born in Cumberland County, Vir- 
ginia, in 1733, was in the colonial service as a 
non-commissioned officer at the time of Braddock's 
defeat in 1755. At the beginning of our struggle 
for independence, he raised and commanded the 
first company south of the James River. In April, 
1777, Congress promoted him from colonel to 
brigadier-general. At the retreat of Lee from 
Monmouth, Scott was the last to leave the field. 

Having 



EBENEZER LARNED. II 7 

Having been previously employed in the recniiting 
service in Virginia, that State was anxious he should 
be intrusted with the duty of her defence ; Wash- 
ington, however, ordered him to South Carolina, 
and he became a prisoner at the capture of 
Charleston, and was not exchanged until near 
the close of the war. In 1785, he removed to 
Woodford County, Kentucky, filling the guberna- 
torial chair of that State from 1808 to 181 2, and 
dying there on the 2 2d of October, 18 13. 



EBENEZER LARNED. 

Ebenezer Earned or Learned, born at Oxford, 
Massachusetts, on the i8th of April, 1728, served 
in the French and Indian War as the captain of 
a company of rangers. At the beginning of the 
Revolution, he marched to Cambridge at the head 
of a regiment of eight months' militia. Arriving 
after the battle of Lexington, he took part in the 
conflict at Bunker Hill, and during the siege of 
Boston unbarred the gates with his own hands, 
when the British evacuated that city, March 17, 
1776. Being wounded shortly after, he was com- 
pelled to retire from active service for nearly a 
year. The 2d of April, 1777, Congress appointed 
him a brigadier-general ; but his health gradually 

failing, 



Il8 CHEVALIER PR UD' HOMME DE BORRE. 

failing, he sought permission to leave the army, and 
retired on the 24th of March, 1778. The follow- 
ing year he acted as chairman of the Constitutional 
Convention, and died in his native town on the ist 
of April, 1 801. 



CHEVALIER PRUD'HOMME DE BORRE. 

Chevalier Prud'homme de Borre, a French gen- 
eral of thirty-five years' service in Europe, was ap- 
pointed brigadier-general in the Continental army 
on the nth of April, 1777. His commission was 
dated Dec. i, 1776, in accordance with a compact 
made with him in France by the American com- 
missioner. In July, De Borre captured a Tory 
under circumstances which warranted, in his judg- 
ment, the prisoner's immediate trial and execu- 
tion, — a summary proceeding, for which he was 
severely and justly reprehended by Washington. 
In August, he commanded a brigade in Sullivan's 
attack on Staten Island, and in September took 
part in the battle of Brandy wine. In this engage- 
ment De Borre claimed the post of honor, on the 
right wing of the army ; Sullivan would not yield 
this to him, and when De Borre pertinaciously in- 
sisted on taking it, the former made a long and 
circuitous march for the purpose of outreaching 
him. This manoeuvre did not succeed ; and as a 

consequence, 



JEDEDIAH HUNTINGTON. II9 

consequence, Sullivan's brigade was not formed for 
action when the battle began. De Borre's brigade 
was the first to give way before the British, and 
much of the ill fortune of that day was owing to 
this occurrence. His insubordination being made 
the subject of a Congressional inquiry, he took 
offence and resigned his commission on the 14th of 
September, 1777, and soon returned to France. 



JEDEDIAH HUNTINGTON. 

Jedediah Huntington, born in Norwich, Connecti- 
cut, on the 4th of August, 1 743, was educated at 
Harvard, and graduating there when he was twenty, 
delivered the first English oration ever pronounced 
in that university. He engaged in commercial 
pursuits with his father, and at the beginning of 
the Revolution was an active member of the Sons 
of Liberty, and first captain, then colonel, in one 
of the local regiments. Joining the Continental 
army at Cambridge in April, 1775, he aided in 
repulsing the British at Danbury the following year, 
and on the 12th of May, 1777, was commissioned 
brigadier-general. In September, he was ordered 
to Philadelphia, and in May, 1778, to the Hud- 
son. He ser\^ed in the court-martial that tried 
Lee, and also in the one that examined Andre. 

At 



I20 JOSEPH REED. 

At the close of the war, by a resolution in Congress 
he was brevetted major-general. He was State 
treasurer, and delegate to the convention that 
adopted the Constitution of the United States. He 
was appointed by Washington collector of customs 
at New London, to which place he removed in 
17S9, and held the office twenty-six years. A 
zealous supporter of charitable institutions, he was 
a member of the first Board of Foreign Missions. 
On the loth of May, 1 784, at a meeting of officers, 
he was appointed one of a committee of four to 
draft a plan of organization, which resulted in their 
reporting on the 13th of that month the Constitu- 
tion of the Society of the Cincinnati. His first 
wife. Faith Trumbull, daughter of the war governor 
of Connecticut, died while Huntington was on his 
way to join the army in 1775, ^^^ his second wife 
was the sister of Bishop Moore of Virginia. Gen- 
eral Huntington died in New London, Connecticut, 
on the 25th of September, 1818. 



JOSEPH REED. 

Joseph Reed was born at Trenton, New Jersey, 
on the 27th of August, 1742. After a thorough 
and comprehensive education in the colonies, he 
adopted the law as his profession ; and his advan- 
tages 



JOSEPH REED. 121 

tages were greatly increased by special training at 
the Temple in London. Returning to America, he 
settled in Philadelphia and began to practise, but 
was keenly alive to all passing events, and gave the 
British ministry timely warning of what he thought 
the end would be, should the growing dissatisfac- 
tion with the coercive measures adopted by Great 
Britain toward her American colonies lead to an 
open revolt and an armed resistance. His ac- 
quaintance with Washington began when the latter 
came to Philadelphia from Virginia as a delegate 
to the first Continental Congress. This friendship 
resulted in Reed's accepting in 1775 the office of 
military secretary to the commander-in-chief. 
When a friend remonstrated with him on the step 
he had taken, he replied, — 

" I have no inclination to be hanged for half-treason. 
When a subject draws his sword against his prince, 
he must cut his way through, if he means afterwards to 
sit down in safety. I have taken too active a part in 
what may be called the civil part of opposition, to re- 
nounce without disgrace the public cause when it 
seems to lead to danger, and have a most sovereign 
contempt for the man who can plan measures he has 
not spirit to execute." 

So well did he fill this position that in 1776, on 
the recommendation of Washington, Congress ap- 
pointed him adjutant-general in the Continental 
service, and well did he justify the chiefs favorable 

opinion 



122 JOSEPH REED. 

opinion of him, by the vigilance, thoroughness, and 
abihty with which he discharged the arduous duties 
of this most responsible office. As adjutant-general 
he met the messenger of Lord Howe, when the 
latter sent a letter to '' George Washington, Esq.," 
and refused to transmit it to the commander-in- 
chief, because it was not properly addressed. 
Reed's first taste of actual war was during the 
series of engagements on Long Island in August, 
1776; but when Washington began his retreat 
through the Jerseys, he sent Reed to solicit rein- 
forcements from the State Legislature. Having 
spent his boyhood in Trenton, and his college days 
in Princeton, his accurate knowledge of the topog- 
raphy of the country contributed in no small de- 
gree to the glorious victories which on the 26th of 
December, 1776, and 3d of January, 1777, changed 
the gloom and despondency of the Americans into 
the assurance and exultation of success. 

As an acknowledgment of his distinguished ser- 
vices during the late campaign. Congress, again at 
the instance of Washington, promoted Reed, his 
commission as brigadier-general bearing date May 
12, 1777. His legal ability also received its share 
of recognition, the Executive Council of Pennsylva- 
nia appointing him to fill the office of chief-justice 
of that State. He declined both appointments, 
however, preferring to serve as a volunteer when- 
ever occasion demanded his military services. 

Congress 



JOSEPH REED. I 23 

Congress accepted his resignation on the 7th of 
June, 1777. At the first news of the invasion of 
Pennsylvania by the British, he joined the army 
again and took part in the battles of Brandyvvine and 
Germantown, and in the skirmish at Whitemarsh. 
Though refusing the office of chief-justice, he had 
accepted a seat in Congress ; and his time was di- 
vided between active service in the camp at Valley 
Forge, and in making appeals on the floor of Con- 
gress for reinforcements and supplies for the des- 
titute army. Impoverished by the war, and with 
his great heart wrung by the sufferings he had wit- 
nessed among our soldiers while in winter-quarters, 
he was suddenly exposed to a great temptation. 
Ten thousand pounds sterling, and any colonial 
office in the king's gift, were tendered him, if he 
would withdraw from the American cause, and use 
his influence in reconciling the two countries. 
Reed hesitated not one moment, but proudly an- 
swered, " I am not worth purchasing, but such as 
I am, the King of Great Britain is not rich enough 
to buy me." His military career closed with the 
battle of Monmouth on the 28th of June, 1778, 
and in November he was unanimously elected 
president of the State of Pennsylvania. To this 
new dignity he brought all the incorruptible integ- 
rity, fertility of resource, and indomitable courage 
that had characterized him as a soldier. Twice 
re-elected, his tenure of office expired in October, 

1781. 



124 COUNT PULASKI. 

1 781. A few months before his death, he was 
again called to serve the public, being elected to a 
seat in the Continental Congress ; but his health 
had already begun to fail, and at the early age of 
forty-three he died on the 5th of March, 1785. 



COUNT KAZEMIERZ (OR CASIMIR) 
PULASKI. 

Count Kazemierz (or Casimir) Pulaski, born in 
Podolia on the 4th of March, 1748, received a 
thorough military education by serving for a time 
in the guard of Duke Charles of Courland, and 
enlisting when twenty-one under his father's ban- 
ner for the rescue of Poland from her oppressors. 
Bereft of father and brother by the war, he yet suc- 
ceeded for a time in baffling all attempts to bring 
his country into subjection; but at last in 1772 his 
enemies triumphed and the partition of Poland 
was the result. Pulaski's estates were confiscated ; 
he was outlawed ; and a price was set upon his 
head. Escaping to Turkey, but failing to gain any 
assistance there, he went to Paris in 1775. Sym- 
pathizing with the oppressed of whatever nation, 
he sought an interview with Benjamin Franklin, 
tendered his services, and came to this country in 
May, 1777, entering our army as a volunteer. His 

conduct 



COUNT PULASKI. T25 

conduct at the battle of Brandywine secured him 
promotion to the rank of brigadier-general, on the 
15th of September, 1777, with a command of the 
cavalry. During the ensuing winter, however, find- 
ing the officers under him dissatisfied at receiving 
orders from a foreigner who could with difficulty 
speak their language, and whose ideas of discipline 
and tactics differed widely from theirs, he resigned 
his command, and returned to special duty at 
Valley Forge. At his suggestion, approved by 
Washington, Congress authorized the raising of an 
independent corps of Lancers and light infantry, in 
which even deserters from the British, and pris- 
oners-of-war, could enlist. This corps became 
famous afterward as " Pulaski's Legion," and ren- 
dered great service at the attack on Savannah. In 
this assault, Pulaski commanded all the cavalry, 
both French and American. The conflict was ob- 
stinate and bloody. Pulaski was severely wounded 
and left on the field of battle when his men re- 
treated ; some of them, however, returned, and 
under fire of the enemy, bore him to camp.' With 
others of the wounded, he was taken on board the 
American brig " Wasp," which was lying in the har- 
bor ; but notwithstanding the skill of the French sur- 
geon, he died a few days after, as she was leaving 
the river, and his body was consigned to th6 sea on 
the nth of October, 1779. The ''Wasp" carry- 
ing the sad intelligence to Charleston, appropriate 

funeral 



126 JOHN STARK. 

funeral services were held in that city. The cor- 
ner-stone of a monument raised to his memory in 
Savannah was laid by Lafayette, when in 1824 he 
visited this country as " the nation's guest," and 
made a triumphant progress through each of the 
twenty- four States. 



JOHN STARK. 

John Stark, born in Londonderry, New Hamp- 
shire, on the 28th of August, 1728, was of Scotch 
descent, his ancestors having been among the 
followers of John Knox. His early life was spent 
in agricultural pursuits, hunting, and trapping, — 
vocations which, though hazardous and laborious, 
imparted a wonderful degree of physical power 
and mental resource. At the age of twenty-five, 
he was taken prisoner by the St. Francis tribe of 
Indians while on a hunting expedition, and detained 
many months ; but such was their admiration for 
his courage and daring that they formally invested 
him with the dignity of chief, and permitted him to 
share in the honors and successes of the tribe. 
Being finally ransomed by the Commissioners of 
Massachusetts, the General Court of that State 
having a " fund for the release of captives," he 
returned home, and as New Hampshire never 

refunded 



JOHN STARK. I 27 

refunded this money, $103, Stark paid it back 
himself, earning the money by his. own labor. 
Through the French and Indian War he sus- 
tained a distinguished part, and at the head of the 
" New Hampshire Rangers " often bore the brunt 
of the battle, when the British regulars were baffled 
and defeated by the Indian modes of warfare. 
During the twelve years of peace which followed, 
Stark devoted himself to his old pursuits, and to 
the training of his four sons ; but within ten 
minutes after hearing the news of the battle of 
Lexington, he had buckled on his sword and 
started for the scene of action, calling upon all 
who loved their country to follow him. Twelve 
hundred men answered his summons, and from 
these he organized two regiments, ready for action 
under the Provincial authority. During the re- 
mainder of this year and all the next, Stark did all 
that a patriot could do to uphold the cause of 
liberty and independence. The enthusiasm of his 
men for their leader was such that when their 
term of enlistment expired, the regiment to a man 
re-enlisted ; but Congress, for some inexplicable 
reason, passed over his claims to promotion, and 
advanced younger and far less experienced officers 
above him. Finding his protests of no avail, he 
resigned his commission and retired to his farm, 
sent his four sturdy sons into the ranks, and justified 
his conduct in withdrawing from active service by 

saying, 



128 JOHN STARK. 

saying, " An officer who cannot maintain his own 
rank, and assert his own rights, cannot be trusted 
to vindicate those of his country." 

The summer of 1777 threatened evil for the New 
England States. Burgoyne was invading our terri- 
tory from the north, while Lord Howe was making 
unmistakable preparations to join him by way of 
the Hudson. At this time of peril, the General 
Assembly of New Hampshire appealed to John 
Stark to take command of the militia and check 
the triumphant progress of Burgoyne. His consent 
was hailed with joy ; willing troops flocked to his 
standard; and his homely appeal on the i6th of 
August, 1777, "We must conquer to-day, boys, or 
Molly Stark's a widow ! " incited his men to such 
deeds of valor that the battle of Bennington re- 
sulted in the complete rout of the enemy and the 
capture of seven hundred prisoners, four pieces of 
brass cannon, and many hundred stands of arms, 
broadswords, drums, etc. This brilUant achieve- 
ment forced Congress to acknowledge their former 
injustice and Stark's true worth; on the 4th of 
October, 1777, he was reinstated in the regular 
army, with the rank of brigadier-general. He 
remained in active service until the close of the 
war, when he once more retired to his farm. 

Loved and revered by all who knew him, the 
veteran of two protracted wars. Stark lived to see 
that of 181 2, though too old then to take the field 

in 



JAMES WILKINSON. I2g 

in person. When the news reached him of the 
capitulation of General Hull, and the loss of the 
cannon which he had won at Bennington, the hero 
of many battles was fired with all his old enthusiasm 
and longed once more to lead our troops to victory. 
He lived to the age of ninety-four, dying at Man- 
chester, New Hampshire, on the 8th of May, 1822. 
His grave on the banks of the Merrimac is marked 
by a granite shaft bearing the simple inscription : 

MAJOR-GENERAL STARK. 



JAMES WILKINSON. 

James Wilkinson, born near the village of Bene- 
dict on the Patuxent, Maryland, in 1757, began the 
study of medicine with an uncle, who, having been 
a surgeon under Wolfe, told his pupil many 
anecdotes of the war in Canada. The military 
bias of his mind was further strengthened by what 
he saw during his frequent visits to the barracks, 
while attending the medical school in Philadelphia. 
Although having returned home to practise his 
profession, upon hearing the news concerning the 
battle of Bunker Hill, he hastened to join the 
army under Washington at Cambridge. Here he 
made the acquaintance of Benedict Arnold and 
Q Aaron 



130 JAMES WILKINSON. 

Aaron Burr, and being given a captain's commission, 
joined the former's expedition into Canada. In 
July, 1776, he was appointed major and attached 
to the staff of Gates, who sent him in December 
with despatches to the commander-in-chief; this 
gave him the opportunity of taking part in the bat- 
tles of Trenton and Princeton. 

In 1777, Wilkinson was advanced to the rank of 
colonel and afterward adjutant-general, in which 
capacity he fought in the battles of Bemis Heights, 
on the 19th of September, 177 7; and of Saratoga, 
on the 7th of October. Prior to the latter engage- 
ment, under cover of the darkness, Col. John Har- 
din, of Kentucky, penetrated the British lines, and 
gained an actual view of their strength and position. 
Regaining the American camp and meeting Wil- 
kinson, he confided to him his discoveries, with the 
entreaty that he would immediately inform General 
Gates. Wilkinson did so, suppressing Hardin's 
name and making /^mj-^"^ appear the hero of this 
midnight exploit. When Burgoyne surrendered, 
therefore, Wilkinson was sent to bear the news to 
Congress with a recommendation to make him 
brigadier-general. Stopping in Reading for some 
time, he consumed eighteen days in making the 
journey, and thus the news was a week old when he 
reached Philadelphia. A proposal in Congress to 
present him with a sword was defeated by Dr. 
Witherspoon dryly remarking, " I think ye 'd better 

gie 



JAMES WILKINSON. I31 

gie the lad a pair of spurs ! " Nevertheless, a few- 
days later, those members who accounted themselves 
personal friends and admirers of General Gates, 
carried the motion to make Wilkinson a brigadier- 
general, by brevet, on the 6th of November, 1777, 
and soon after he was appointed secretary of the 
Board of War, of which Gates was president. His 
delay in Reading, however, was eventually of great 
service to the country, for, having visited Lord 
Stirling's headquarters at that place, he dined with 
the officers. After Lord Stirling left the table, 
Wilkinson, in a moment of post-prandial confidence, 
revealed to Major McWilliams, an aid to Lord 
Stirling, the scheme at that time being set on foot 
by Mifflin and Conway, to have Gates supersede 
Washington as commander-in-chief of the army. 
McWilliams felt it his duty to report what he had 
heard to Lord Stirling, who in his turn felt con- 
strained to communicate the plot to Washington. 
When this infamous conspiracy became know^n, 
forty-nine officers of his own rank petitioned 
Congress to revoke Wilkinson's appointment as 
brigadier. Hearing this, Wilkinson wrote to Con- 
gress on the 3d of March, 1778, that he was 

" informed the mark of distinction conferred on him 
has occasioned a dissatisfaction in the army," that 
" to obviate any embarrassment which may result from 
this disposition, by the consequent resignation of 
officers of merit, he begs leave to relinquish his brevet 

of 



132 JAMES WILKINSON. 

of brigadier, wishing to hold no commission unless he 
can wear it to the honor and advantage of his coun- 
try;" and that "this conduct, however repugnant to 
fashionable ambition, he finds consistent with those 
principles on which he early drew his sword in the 
present contest." 

His resignation was accepted on the 6th of March, 
1778 ; he was allowed to retain his rank of colonel, 
but was not again actively employed until near the 
close of the war, when for a time he filled the 
position of clothier-general to the army. Settling 
in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1783, he found the 
Mississippi River closed to American commerce, 
and Western produce rotting on the ground for 
want of transportation. Seeing he could speedily 
make a fortune, could he but obtain from the 
Spanish Government the exclusive right to trade 
with New Orleans, he paved the way by presenting 
to the commandant at Natchez a pair of Kentucky 
thoroughbred horses. Presently he loaded a boat 
with local produce and sent it down the river. It 
was seized, but of course released v/hen he appeared 
as the owner. He now entered into formal negoti- 
ations. Taking advantage of the dissatisfaction 
in the West with the federal Government, because 
of its inability at that time to protect them from 
the Indians, and to open the Mississippi for pur- 
poses of transportation, Wilkinson covenanted, in 
return for a pension of ^2,000 per annum, and 

the 



JAMES WILKINSON. 1 33 

the exclusive right of trade with New OrleaPxS, to 
induce the Western States to separate from the 
Eastern, and place themselves under the protec- 
tion of the Spanish Government. This plot had 
almost succeeded when it was discovered and de- 
feated. Not finding trading as remunerative as he 
had hoped, he applied in 1791 for reinstatement in 
the army, and this request was granted by appointing 
him lieutenant-colonel, because, as was urged in 
Congress, being of a restless and intriguing dispo- 
sition, " he was dangerous as long as he was 
unemployed." His conduct justified this estimate, 
for he rendered such good service against the 
Indians that in 1792 he received the appointment 
of brigadier-general ; and upon the death of Wayne, 
in 1796, he was given the supreme command on 
the Western frontier. 

In 1805, Wilkinson was appointed Governor of 
Louisiana, when he discovered and disclosed the 
conspiracy of Aaron Burr to establish a separate 
confederacy beyond the AUeghanies. Burr and 
Andrew Jackson declaring Wilkinson to be impli- 
cated, he was tried by court-martial in 181 1, but ac- 
quitted because of insufficient proof, though his cor- 
respondence with the Spanish Government, since 
made public, establishes his guilt. He was ad- 
vanced to the rank of major-general in 181 3, and 
employed in the North ; but his operations were 
unsuccessful, owing to a disagreement with Wade 

Hampton. 



134 CHEVALIER DE LA NEUVILLE. 

Hampton. A court of inquiry in 1815 exonerated 
him, however; but upon the reorganizing of the 
army, he was not retained in the service, and retired 
to Mexico, where he had acquired large estates. 
He died in the vicinity of the capital on the 28th 
of December, 1825. 



CHEVALIER DE LA NEUVUXE. 

Chevalier de la Neuville, born about 1740, 
came to this country with his younger brother in 
the autumn of 1777, and tendered his services to 
Congress. Having served with distinction in the 
French army for twenty years, enjoying the favor- 
able opinion of Lafayette, and bringing with him 
the highest testimonials, he was appointed on the 
14th of May, 1778, inspector of the army under 
Gates, with the promise of rank according to his 
merit at the end of three months. He was a good 
officer and strict disciplinarian, but was not popu- 
lar with the army. Failing to obtain the promo- 
tion he expected, he applied for permission to 
retire at the end of six months' service. His 
request was granted on the 4th of December, 
1778, Congress instructing the president that a 
certificate be given to Monsieur de la Neuville 
in the following words : — 

"Mr. 



JETHRO SUMNER. 1 35 

" Mr. de la Neuville having served with fidelity 
and reputation in the army of the United States, in 
testimony of his merit a brevet commission of briga- 
dier has been granted to him by Congress, and on 
his request he is permitted to leave the service of 
these States and return to France." 

The brevet conamission was to bear date the 14th 
of October, 1778. Having formed a strong attach- 
ment for General Gates, they corresponded after 
De la Neuville's return to France. In one of his 
letters the chevalier writes that he wishes to re- 
turn to America, " not as a general, but as a phil- 
osopher," and to purchase a residence near that 
of his best friend. General Gates. He did not 
return, however, and his subsequent history is 
lost amid the troubles of the French Revolution. 



JETHRO SUMNER. 

Jethro Sumner, born in Virginia about 1730, 
was of English parentage. Removing to North 
Carolina while still a youth, he took an active 
part in the measures which preceded the Revolu- 
tion, and believed the struggle to be unavoidable. 
Having held the office of paymaster to the Pro- 
vincial troops, and also the command at Fort 
Cumberland, he was appointed in 1776, by the 
Provincial Congress, colonel in the Third North 

Carolina 



136 JAMES HOG AN. 

Carolina Regiment, and sensed under Washington 
at the North. On the 9th of January, 1779, he 
was commissioned brigadier-general, and ordered 
to join Gates at the South. He took part in the 
battle of Camden, and served under Greene at 
the battle of Eutaw Springs on the 8th of Septem- 
ber, 1 781, where he led a bayonet-charge. He 
served to the close of the war, rendering much 
assistance in keeping the Tories in North Carolina 
in check during the last years of the struggle, 
and died in Warren County, North Carolina, 
about 1790. 



JAMES HOGAN. 

James Hogan of Halifax, North Carolina, was 
chosen to represent his district in the Provincial 
Congress that assembled on the 4th of April, 
1776. Upon the organization of the North Caro- 
lina forces, he was appointed paymaster of the 
Third Regiment. On the 1 7th of the same month, 
he was transferred to the Edenton and Halifax 
Militia, with the rank of major. His miUtary 
services were confined to his own State, though 
commissioned brigadier-general in the Continental 
army on the 9th of January, 1779. 



ISAAC HUGER. 137 



ISAAC HUGER. 



Is.^AC HuGER, bom at Limerick Plantation at the 
head-waters of Cooper River, South CaroUna, on 
the 19th of March, 1742, was the grandson of 
Huguenot exiles who had fled to America after 
the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Inheriting 
an ardent love of civil and religious liberty, reared 
in a home of wealth and refinement, thoroughly 
educated in Europe and trained to military ser- 
vice through participation in an expedition against 
the Cherokee Indians, he was selected on the 1 7th 
of June, 1775, by the Provincial Congress, as lieu- 
tenant-colonel of the First South Carolina Regiment. 
Being stationed at Fort Johnson, he had no op- 
portunity to share in the defeat of the British in 
Charleston Harbor, as Colonel Moultrie's victory 
at Sullivan's Island prevented premeditated attack 
on the city. During the two years of peace for 
the South that followed, Huger was promoted to 
a colonelcy, and then ordered to Georgia. His 
soldiers, however, were so enfeebled by sickness, 
privation, and toil that when called into action at 
Savannah, they could only show what they might 
have accomplished under more favorable circum- 
stances. On the 9th of January, 1779, Congress 
made him a brigadier-general ; and until the cap- 
ture of Charleston by the British in May, 1780, 

he 



138 ISAAC HUGER. 

he was in constant service either in South Caro- 
Hna or Georgia. Too weak to offer any open 
resistance, the patriots of the South were com- 
pelled for a time to remain in hiding, but with 
the appearance of Greene as commander, active 
operations were resumed. 

Huger's thorough knowledge of the different 
localities and his frank fearlessness gained him the 
confidence of his superior officer, and it was to his 
direction that Greene confided the army on several 
occasions, while preparing for the series of en- 
gagements that culminated in the evacuation of 
Charleston and Savannah. Huger commanded the 
Virginia troops at the battle of Guilford Court- 
House, where he was severely wounded ; and at 
Hobkirk's Hill he had the honor of commanding 
the right wing of the army. He served to the 
close of the war ; and when Moultrie was chosen 
president, he was made vice-president, of the 
Society of the Cincinnati of South Carolina. En- 
tering the war a rich man, he left it a poor one ; 
he gave his wealth as freely as he had risked his 
life, and held them both well spent in helping to 
secure the blessings of liberty and independence 
to his beloved country. He died on the 17th 
of October, 1797, and was buried on the banks of 
the Ashley River, South Carolina. 



MORDECAI GIST. 1 39 



MORDECAI GIST. 



MoRDECAi Gist, born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 
1743, was descended from some of the earliest 
English settlers in that State. Though trained 
for a commercial life, he hastened at the beginning 
of the Revolution to offer his services to his coun- 
try, and in January, 1775, was elected to the 
command of a company of volunteers raised in 
his native city, called the "Baltimore Indepen- 
dent Company," — the first company raised in 
Maryland for liberty. In 1776, he rose to the 
rank of major, distinguishing himself whenever 
an occasion offered. In 1777, he was made 
colonel, and on the 9th of January, 1779, Con- 
gress recognized his worth by conferring on him 
the rank of brigadier-general. 

It is with the battle of Camden, South Carolina, 
that Gist's name is indissolubly linked. The British 
having secured the best position. Gates divided his 
forces into three parts, assigning the right wing 
to Gist. By a blunder in an order issued by Gates 
himself, the centre and the left wing were thrown 
into confusion and routed. Gist and De Kalb 
stood firm, and by their determined resistance 
made the victory a dear one for the British. 
When the brave German fell, Gist rallied about 
a hundred men and led them off in good order. 

In 



140 WILLIAM IRVINE. 

In 1782, joining the light troops of the South, he 
commanded at Combahee — the last engagement 
in the war — and gained a victory. At the close 
of the war he retired to his plantation near Charles- 
ton, where he died in 1792. He was married 
three times, and had two sons, one of whom he 
named "Independent" and the other "States." 



WILLIAM IRVINE. 

William Irvine, born near Enniskillen, Ireland, 
on the 3d of November, 1741, was educated at 
Trinity College, Dublin. Though preferring a mili- 
tary career, he adopted the medical profession to 
gratify the wishes of his parents. During the latter 
part of the Seven Years War between England 
and France, he served as surgeon on board a 
British man-of-war, and shortly before the restora- 
tion of peace, he resigned his commission, and 
coming to America in 1764, settled at Carlisle, 
Pennsylvania, where he soon acquired a great 
reputation and a large practice. Warm-hearted 
and impulsive, at the opening of the Revolution he 
adopted the cause of the colonists as his own, and 
after serving in the Pennsylvania Convention, he 
was commissioned in 1776 to raise a regiment in 

that 



WILLIAM IRVINE. 14I 

that State. At the head of these troops, he took 
part in the Canadian expedition of that year, and 
being taken prisoner, was detained for many 
months. He was captured a second time at the 
battle of Chestnut Hill, New Jersey, in December, 
1777. On the i2th of May, 1779, Congress con- 
ferred on him the rank of brigadier-general. From 
1782 until the close of the war, he commanded at 
Fort Pitt, — an important post defending the West- 
ern frontier, then threatened by British and Indians. 
In 1785, he was appointed an agent to examine 
the public lands, and to him was intrusted the 
administration of an act for distributing the dona- 
tion lands that had been promised to the troops 
of the Commonwealth. Appreciating the advan- 
tage to Pennsylvania of having an outlet on Lake 
Erie, he suggested the purchase of that tract of 
land known as "the triangle." From 1785 to 
1795, ^^ filled various civil and miUtary offices of 
responsibility. Being sent to treat with those con- 
nected with the Whiskey Insurgents, and failing to 
quiet them by arguments, he was given command 
of the Pennsylvania Militia to carry out the vigor- 
ous measures afterward adopted to reduce them to 
order. In 1 795, he settled in Philadelphia, held the 
position of intendant of military stores, and was 
president of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cin- 
cinnati until his death on the 9th of July, 1804. 



142 DANIEL MORGAN. 



DANIEL MORGAN. 

Daniel Morgan, born in New Jersey about 1736, 
was of Welsh parentage. His family having an 
interest in some Virginia lands, he went to that 
colony at seventeen years of age. When Braddock 
began his march against Fort Duquesne, Morgan 
joined the army as a teamster, and did good ser- 
vice at the rout of the English army at Monon- 
gahela, by bringing away the wounded. Upon 
returning from this disastrous campaign, he was 
appointed ensign in the colonial service, and soon 
after was sent with important despatches to a 
distant fort. Surprised by the Indians, his two 
companions were instantly killed, while he received 
a rifle-ball in the back of his neck; which shattered 
his jaw and passed through his left cheek, inflicting 
the only severe wound he received during his en- 
tire military career. Beheving himself about to 
die, but determined that his scalp should not fall 
into the hands of his assailants, he clasped his 
arms around his horse's neck and spurred him 
forward. An Indian followed in hot pursuit ; but 
finding Morgan's steed too swift for him, he threw 
his tomahawk, hoping to strike his victim. Morgan 
however escaped and reached the fort, but was 
lifted fainting from the saddle and was not restored 
to health for six months. In 1762, he obtained a 

grant 



I 



DANIEL MORGAN. 143 

grant of land near Winchester, Virginia, where 
he devoted himself to farming and stock-raising. 
Summoned again to military duty, he served during 
the Pontiac War, but from 1765 to 1775 led the 
life of a farmer, and acquired during this period 
much property. 

The first call to arms in the Revolutionary strug- 
gle found Morgan ready to respond ; recruits flocked 
to his standard ; and at the head of a corps of rifle- 
men destined to render brilliant ser\dce, he marched 
away to Washington's camp at Cambridge. Mont- 
gomery was already in Canada, and when Arnold 
was sent to co-operate with him, Morgan eagerly 
sought for service in an enterprise so hazardous 
and yet so congenial. At the storming of Quebec, 
Morgan and his men carried the first barrier, and 
could they have been reinforced, would no doubt 
have captured the city. Being opposed by over- 
whelming numbers, and their rifles being rendered 
almost useless by the fast- falling snow, after an 
obstinate resistance they were forced to surrender 
themselves prisoners- of- war. Morgan was offered 
the rank of colonel in the British army, but re- 
jected the offer with scorn. Upon being exchanged, 
Congress gave him the same rank in the Conti- 
nental army, and placed a rifle brigade of five 
hundred men under his command. 

For three years Morgan and his men rendered 
such valuable service that even English writers have 

borne 



144 DANIEL MORGAN. 

borne testimony to their efficiency. In 1780, a 
severe attack of rheumatism compelled him to re- 
turn home. On the 31st of October of the same 
year, Congress raised him to the rank of brigadier- 
general ; and his health being somewhat restored, 
he joined General Greene, who had assumed com- 
mand of the Southern army. Much of the success 
of the American arms at the South, during this 
campaign, must be attributed to General Morgan, 
but his old malady returning, in March, 1781, he 
was forced to resign. When Cornwallis invaded 
Virginia, Morgan once more joined the army, and 
Lafayette assigned to him the command of the 
cavalry. Upon the surrender of Yorktown, he re- 
tired once more to his home, spending his time in 
agricultural pursuits and the improvement of his 
mind. In 1 794, the duty of quelling the " Whiskey 
Insurrection " in Pennsylvania was intrusted to him, 
and subsequently he represented his district in Con- 
gress for two sessions. He died in Winchester on 
the 6th of July, 1802, and has been called, "The 
hero of Quebec, of Saratoga, and of the Cowpens ; 
the bravest among the brave, and the Ney of the 
West." 



MOSES HAZEN. 145 



MOSES HAZEN. 



Moses Hazen, born in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 
1733, served in the French and Indian War, and 
subsequently settled near St. Johns, New Bruns- 
wick, accumulating much wealth, and retaining his 
connection with the British army as a lieutenant on 
half-pay. In 1775, having furnished supplies and 
rendered other assistance to Montgomery during 
the Canadian campaign, the English troops de- 
stroyed his shops and houses and carried off his 
personal property. In 1 776, he offered his services 
to Congress, who promised to indemnify him for 
all loss he had sustained, and appointed him col- 
onel in the Second Canadian Regiment, known by 
the name of " Congress's Own," because '' not 
attached to the quota of any State." He remained 
in active and efficient service during the entire 
war, being promoted to the rank of brigadier- 
general the 29th of June, 1 781. At the close of 
the war, with his two brothers, who had also been 
in the army, he settled in Vermont upon land 
granted to them for their services, and died at 
Troy, New York, on the 30th of January, 1802, his 
widow receiving a further grant of land and a pen- 
sion for life of two hundred dollars. 



146 OTHO H. WILLIAMS.— JOHN GR EATON. 



OTHO HOLLAND WILLL\MS. 

Otho Holland Williams, born in Prince George's 
County, Maryland, in 1 749, entered the Revolu- 
tionary army in 1775, as a lieutenant. He stead- 
ily rose in rank, holding the position of adjutant- 
general under Greene. Though acting with skill 
and gallantry on all occasions, his fame chiefly 
rests on his brilliant achievement at the battle of 
Eutaw Springs, where his command gained the day 
for the Americans by their irresistible charge with 
fixed bayonets across a field swept by the fire of 
the enemy. On the 9th of May, 1782, he was 
made a brigadier-general, but retired from the 
army on the 6th of June, 1783, to accept the ap- 
pointment of collector of customs for the State of 
Maryland, which office he held until his death on 
the 1 6th of July, 1800. 



JOHN GREATON. 

John Greaton, born in Roxbury, Massachusetts, 
on the loth of March, 1741, was an innkeeper 
prior to the Revolution, and an officer of the 
mihtia of his native town. On the 12th of July, 
1775, he was appointed colonel in the regular army. 

During 



RUFUS PUTNAM. 147 

During the siege of Boston, he led an expedition 
which destroyed the buildings on Long Island in 
Boston Harbor. In April, 1776, he was ordered 
to Canada, and in the following December he 
joined Washington in New Jersey, but was subse- 
quently transferred to Heath's division at West 
Point. He served to the end of the war, and was 
commissioned brigadier-general on the 7th of 
January, 1783. Conscientiously performing all the 
duties assigned him, though unable to boast of any 
brilliant achievements, he won a reputation for 
sterling worth and reliability. He died in his 
native town on the i6th of December, 1783, the 
first of the Revolutionary generals to pass away 
after the conclusion of peace. 



RUFUS PUTNAM. 

RuFUS Putnam, born in Sutton, Massachusetts, on 
the 9th of April, 1738, after serving his apprentice- 
ship as a millwright, enlisted as a common soldier in 
the Provincial army in 1757. At the close of the 
French and Indian War, he returned to Massa- 
chusetts, married, and settled in the town of New 
Braintree as a miller. Finding a knowledge of 
mathematics necessary to his success, he devoted 
much time to mastering that science. In 1773, 

having 



148 RUFUS PUTNAM. 

having gone to Florida, he was appointed deputy- 
surveyor of the province by the governor. A rup- 
ture with Great Britain becoming imminent, he 
returned to Massachusetts in 1775, and was ap- 
pointed heutenant in one of the first regiments 
raised in that State after the battle of Lexington. 
His first service was the throwing up of defences 
in front of Roxbury. In 1776, he was ordered to 
New York and superintended the defences in that 
section of the country and the construction of the 
fortifications at West Point. In August, Congress 
appointed him engineer with the rank of colonel. 
He continued in active service, sometimes as engi- 
neer, sometimes as commander, and at others as 
commissioner for the adjustment of claims growing 
out of the war, until the disbanding of the army, 
being advanced to the rank of brigadier-general on 
the 7th of January, 1783. 

After the close of the war, Putnam held various 
civil offices in his native State, acted as aid to 
General Lincoln during Shays' Rebellion in 1786, 
was superintendent of the Ohio Company, founded 
the town of Marietta in 1788, was appointed in 
1792 brigadier-general of the forces sent against 
the Indians of the Northwest, concluded an im- 
portant treaty with them the same year, and re- 
signed his commission on account of illness in 
1793. During the succeeding ten years, he was 
Surveyor- General of the United States, when his 

increasing 



ELI AS DAYTON. 1 49 

increasing age compelled him to withdraw from 
active employment, and he retired to Marietta, 
where he died on the ist of May, 1824. 



ELIAS DAYTON. 

Elias Dayton, born in Elizabethtown, New Jersey, 
in July, 1737, began his military career by join- 
ing Braddock's forces, and fought in the "Jersey 
Blues " under Wolfe at Quebec. Subsequently he 
commanded a company of militia in an expedition 
against the Indians, and at the beginning of the 
Revolution was a member of the Committee of 
Safety. In July, 1775, he was with the party 
under Lord Stirling that captured a British trans- 
port off Staten Island. In 1776, he was ordered 
to Canada; but upon reaching Albany he was 
directed to remain in that part of the country to 
prevent any hostile demonstration by the Tory ele- 
ment. In 1777, he ranked as colonel of the Third 
New Jersey Regiment, and in 1781, he materially 
aided in suppressing the revolt in the New Jersey 
line. Serving to the end of the war, he was pro- 
moted to be a brigadier-general the 7th of January, 
1783. Returning to New Jersey upon the dis- 
banding of the army, he was elected president 
of the Society of the Cincinnati of that State, and 
died in his native town on the 17th of July, 1807. 



150 COUNT ARM AND. 



COUNT ARMAND. 



Armand Tuffin, Marquis de la Rouarie, born in 
the castle of Rouarie near Rennes, France, on the 
14th of xA.pril, 1756, was admitted in 1775 to 
be a member of the body-guard of the French 
king. A duel led to his dismissal shortly after. 
Angry and mortified, he attempted suicide, but 
his life was saved; and in May, 1777, he came 
to the United States, where he entered the Conti- 
nental army under the name of Count Armand. 
Being granted leave to raise a partisan corps of 
Frenchmen, he served with credit and great abihty 
under Lafayette, Gates, and Pulaski. At the re- 
organization of the army in 1780, Washington 
proposed Armand for promotion, and recom- 
mended the keeping intact of his corps. In 1781, 
he was summoned to France by his family, but 
returned in time to take part in the siege of York- 
town, bringing with him clothing, arms, and 
ammunition for his corps, which had been with- 
drawn from active service during his absence. 
After the surrender of Cornwallis, Washington 
again called the attention of Congress to Armand's 
meritorious conduct, and he at last received his 
promotion as brigadier-general on the 26th of 
March, 1783. At the close of the war he was 
admitted as a member of the Society of the Cin- 
cinnati, 



THADDEUS KOSCIUSKO. 151 

cinnati, and with warmest recommendations from 
Washington returned to his native country and lived 
privately until 1788, when he was elected one of 
twelve deputies to intercede with the king for the 
continuance of the privileges of his native prov- 
ince of Brittany. For this he was confined for 
several weeks in the Bastile. Upon his release he 
returned to Brittany, and in 1789, denounced the 
principle of revolution and proposed a plan for the 
union of the provinces of Brittany, Anjou, and 
Poitou, and the raising of an army to co-operate 
with the allies. These plans being approved by 
the brothers of Louis XVI., in December, 1791, 
Rouarie was appointed Royal Commissioner of 
Brittany. In March of the year following, the 
chiefs of the confederation met at his castle ; and 
all was ready for action when they were betrayed 
to the legislative assembly, and troops were sent to 
arrest the marquis. He succeeded in eluding them 
for several months, when he was attacked by a fatal 
illness and died in the castle of La Guyomarais 
near Lamballe, on the 30th of January, 1793. 



THADDEUS KOSCIUSKO. 

Thaddeus Kosciusko, born near Novogrodek, 
Lithuania, on the 12th of February, 1746, was 
descended from a noble Polish family. Studying 

at 



152 THADDEUS KOSCIUSKO. 

at first in the military academy at Warsaw, he 
aftenvard completed his education in France. 
Returning to his native country, he entered the 
army and rose to the rank of captain. Soon after 
coming to America, he offered his services to 
Washington as a volunteer in the cause of Ameri- 
can independence. Appreciating his lofty char- 
acter and fine military attainments, Washington 
made him one of his aids, showing the high esti- 
mation in which he held the gallant Pole. 

Taking part in several great battles in the North, 
Kosciusko there proved his skill and courage, and 
was ordered to accompany Greene to the South 
when that general superseded Gates in 1781. 
Holding the position of chief engineer, he planned 
and directed all the besieging operations against 
Ninety-Six. In recognition of these valuable ser- 
vices, he received from Congress the rank of brig- 
adier-general in the Continental army on the 13th 
of October, 1783. Serving to the end of the war, 
he shared with Lafayette the honor of being 
admitted into the Society of the Cincinnati. 
Returning to Poland in 1786 he entered the Polish 
army upon its reorganization in 1789, and fought 
valiantly in behalf of his oppressed country. Re- 
signing his commission, he once more became an 
exile, when the Russians triumphed, and the sec- 
ond partition of Poland was agreed upon. 

Two years later, however, when the Poles deter- 
mined 



THADDEUS KOSCIUSKO. 1 53 

mined to resume their struggle for freedom, Kosci- 
usko returned, and in March, 1794, was proclaimed 
director and generalissimo. With courage, pa- 
tience and skill, that justified the high esteem in 
which he had been held in America, he directed 
his followers while they waged the unequal strife. 
Successful at first, he broke the yoke of tyranny 
from the necks of his down-trodden countrymen, 
and for a few short weeks beheld his beloved 
country free. But with vastly augmented numbers 
the enemy once more invaded Poland ; and in a 
desperate conflict Kosciusko, covered with wounds, 
was taken prisoner, and the subjugation of the 
whole province soon followed. He remained a 
prisoner for two years until the accession of Paul I. 
of Russia. In token of his admiration, Paul wished 
to present his own sword to Kosciusko ; but the 
latter refused it, saying, " I have no more need of 
a sword, as I have no longer a country," and 
would accept nothing but his release from captiv- 
ity. He visited France and England, and in 1797 
returned to the United States, from which country 
he received a pension, and was everywhere warmly 
welcomed. The following 'y^ar he returned to 
France, when his countrymen in the French army 
presented him with the sword of John Sobieski. 
Purchasing a small estate, he devoted himself to 
agriculture. 

In 1806, when Napoleon planned the restora- 
tion 



154 STEPHEN MOYLAN. 

tion of Poland, Kosciusko refused to join in the 
undertaking, because he was on his parole never 
to fight against Russia. He gave one more evi- 
dence before his death of his love of freedom 
and sincere devotion to her cause, by releasing 
from slavery all the serfs on his own estate in his 
native land. In 1816, he removed to Switzerland, 
where he died on the 15 th of October, 181 7, at 
Solothurn. The following year his remains were 
removed to Cracow, and buried beside Sobieski, 
and the people, in loving remembrance of his patri- 
otic devotion, raised a mound above his grave one 
hundred and fifty feet high, the earth being brought 
from every great battle-field in Poland. This 
country paid its tribute of gratitude by erecting a 
monument to his memory at West Point on the 
Hudson. 



STEPHEN MOYLAN. 

Stephen Moylan, born in Ireland in 1734, re- 
ceived a good education in his native land, resided 
for a time in England, and then coming to America, 
travelled extensively, and finally became a mer- 
chant in Philadelphia. He was among the first to 
hasten to the camp at Cambridge in 1775, and 
was at once placed in the Commissariat Depart- 
ment. His face and manners attracting Wash- 
ington, 



SAMUEL ELBERT. 155 

ington, he was selected March 5, 1776, to be 
aide-de-camp, and on the 5 th of June following, on 
recommendation of the commander-in-chief, he 
was made quartermaster-general. Finding himself 
unable to discharge his duties satisfactorily, he soon 
after resigned to enter the ranks as a volunteer. 
In 1777 he commanded a company of dragoons, 
was in the action at Germantown, and wintered with 
the army at Valley Forge in 1777 and 1778. With 
Wayne, Moylan joined the expedition to Bull's Ferry 
in 1 780, and was with Greene in the South in 1 781. 
He served to the close of the war, being made briga- 
dier-general by brevet the 3d of November, 1783. 
After the disbanding of the army, he resumed 
business in Philadelphia, where he died on the nth 
of April, 181 1, holding for several years prior to 
his decease the office of United States commis- 
sioner of loans. 



SAMUEL ELBERT. 

Samuel Elbert, born in Prince William parish, 
South Carolina, in 1 743. was left an orphan at an 
early age, and going to Savannah, engaged in com- 
mercial pursuits. In June, 17 74, he was elected 
captain of a company of grenadiers, and later was 
a member of the local Committee of Safety. In 
February, 1776, he entered the Continental army as 

lieutenant- colonel 



156 CHARLES COTESWORTH PINCKNEY. 

lieutenant-colonel of Lachlan Mcintosh's brigade, 
and was promoted to colonel during the ensuing 
September. In May of the year following, he was 
intrusted with the command of an expedition 
against the British in East Florida, and captured 
Fort Oglethorpe in that State in April of 1778. 
Ordered to Georgia, he behaved with great gal- 
lantry when an attack was made on Savannah 
by Col. Archibald Campbell in December of the 
same year. In 1779, after distinguishing himself 
at Brier Creek, he was taken prisoner, and when 
exchanged joined the army under Washington, and 
was present at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. 
On the 3d of November, 1783, Congress brevetted 
him brigadier-general, and in 1785 he was elected 
Governor of Georgia. In further acknowledgment 
of his services in her behalf, that State subsequently 
appointed him major-general of her militia, and 
named a county in his honor. He died in Savan- 
nah on the 2d of November, 1788. 



CHARLES COTESWORTH PINCKNEY. 

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, born at Charles- 
ton, South CaroHna, on the 25 th of February, 1746, 
was educated in England. Having qualified him- 
self for the legal profession, he returned to his native 

State 



CHARLES COTESWORTH PINCKNEY. 157 

State and began the practice of law in 1770, soon 
gaining an enviable reputation and being appointed 
to offices of trust and great responsibility under 
the crown. The battle of Lexington, however, 
changed his whole career. With the first call to 
arms, Pinckney took the field, was given the rank 
of captain, June, 1775, and entered at once upon 
the recruiting service. Energetic and efficient, he 
gained promotion rapidly, taking part as colonel 
in the battle at Fort Sullivan. This victory secur- 
ing peace to South Carolina for two years, he left 
that State to join the army under Washington, who, 
recognizing his ability, made him aide-de-camp 
and subsequently honored him with the most dis- 
tinguished military and civil appointments. When 
his native State again became the theatre of action, 
Pinckney hastened to her defence, and once more 
took command of his regiment. In all the events 
that followed, he bore his full share, displaying fine 
military qualities and unwavering faith in the ulti- 
mate triumph of American arms. 

At length, after a most gallant resistance, over- 
powered by vastly superior numbers, and under- 
mined by famine and disease, Charleston capitulated 
in May, 1780, and Pinckney became a prisoner-of- 
war and was not exchanged until 1782. On the 
3d of November of the year following, he was 
promoted to be brigadier-general. Impoverished 
by the war, he returned to the practice of law upon 

the 



158 WILLIAM RUSSELL. 

the restoration of peace ; and after declining a 
place on the Supreme Bench, and the secretaryship, 
first of War and then of State, he accepted the 
mission to France in 1796, urged to this step by the 
request of Washington and the conviction that it 
was his duty. Arriving in Paris, he met the intima- 
tion that peace might be secured with money by the 
since famous reply, " Not one cent for tribute, but 
millions for defence ! " The war with France ap- 
pearing inevitable, he was recalled and given a 
commission as major-general ; peace being restored 
without an appeal to arms, he once more retired 
to the quiet of his home, spending the chief por- 
tion of his old age in the pursuits of science and 
the pleasures of rural life, though taking part when 
occasion demanded in public affairs. He died in 
Charleston on the i6th of August, 1825, in the 
eightieth year of his age. 



WILLIAM RUSSELL. 

William Russell, born in Culpeper County, Vir- 
ginia, in 1758, removed in early boyhood with his 
father to the western frontier of that State. When 
only fifteen years of age, he joined the party led 
by Daniel Boone, to form a settlement on the 
Cumberland River. Driven back by the Indians, 

Boone 



WILLIAM RUSSELL. 159 

Boone persevered; but Russell hastened to enter 
the Continental army ; and he received, young as 
he was, the appointment of Heutenant. i\fter the 
battle of King's Mountain in 1780, he was pro- 
moted to a captaincy, and ordered to join an 
expedition against the Cherokee Indians, with 
whom he succeeded in negotiating a treaty of 
peace. On the 3d of November, 1783, he re- 
ceived his commission as brigadier-general. 

At the close of the war Russell went to Ken- 
tucky and bore an active part in all the expeditions 
against the Indians, until the settlement of the 
country was accomphshed. In 1789, he was a 
delegate to the Virginia Legislature that passed an 
act separating Kentucky from that State.' After 
the organization of the Kentucky government 
Russell was annually returned to the Legislature 
until 1808, when he was appointed by President 
Madison colonel of the Seventh United States 
Infantry. In 181 1, he succeeded Gen. William 
Henry Harrison in command of the frontier of 
Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri. In 181 2, he 
planned and commanded an expedition against the 
Peoria Indians, and in 1823 was again sent to 
the Legislature. The following year he declined 
the nomination for governor, and died on the 3d 
of July, 1825, in Fayette County, Kentucky. 
Russell County of that State is named in his 
honor. 



l6o FRANCIS MARION. 



FRANCIS MARION. 



Francis Marion, born at Winyah, near George- 
town, South Carolina, in 1732, was of Huguenot 
descent ; his ancestors, fleeing from persecution in 
France, came to this country in 1690. Small in 
stature and slight in person, he possessed a power 
of endurance united with remarkable activity rarely 
surpassed. At the age of fifteen, yielding to a 
natural love of enterprise, he went to sea in a small 
schooner employed in the West India trade. Be- 
ing shipwrecked, he endured such tortures from 
famine and thirst as to have prevented his ever 
wishing to go to sea again. After thirteen years 
spent in peaceful tilling of the soil, he took up 
arms in defence of his State against the Cherokee 
Indians. So signal a victory was gained by the 
whites at the town of Etchoee, June 7, 1761, that 
this tribe never again seriously molested the set- 
tlers. Returning to his home after this campaign^ 
Marion resumed his quiet hfe until in 1775 he was 
elected a member of the Provincial Congress of 
South Carolina. This Congress solemnly pledged 
the " people of the State to the principles of the 
Revolution, authorized the seizing of arms and 
ammunition, stored in various magazines belonging 
to the crown, and passed a law for raising two 
regiments of infantry and a company of horse." 

Marion 



FRANCIS MARION. l6l 

Marion resigned his seat in Congress, and applying 
for military duty, was appointed captain. He 
undertook the recruiting and drilling of troops, 
assisted at the capture of Fort Johnson, was pro- 
moted to the rank of major, and bore his full share 
in the memorable defence of Fort Moultrie on 
Sullivan's Island, which saved Charleston and se- 
cured to South CaroHna long exemption from the 
horrors of war. Little was done at the South for 
the next three years, when in 1779 the combined 
French and American forces attempted the capture 
of Savannah. Marion was in the hottest of the 
fight ; but the attack was a failure, followed in 1 780 
by the loss of Charleston. Marion escaped being 
taken prisoner by an accident that placed him on 
sick leave just before the city was invested by the 
British. The South was now overrun by the 
enemy; cruel outrages were everywhere perpe- 
trated ; and the defeat of the Americans at Cam- 
den seemed to have quenched the hopes of even 
the most sanguine. Four days after the defeat 
of Gates, Marion began organizing and drilling a 
band of troopers subsequently known as " Marion's 
Brigade." Though too few in number to risk an 
open battle, they succeeded in so harassing the 
enemy that several expeditions were fitted out 
expressly to kill or capture Marion, who, because 
of the partisan warfare he waged and the tactics 
he employed, gained the sobriquet of the " Swamp 
XT Fox." 



1 62 FRANCIS MARION. 

Fox." Again and again he surprised strong parties 
of the British at night, capturing large stores of 
ammunition and arms, and Hberating many Ameri- 
can prisoners. He was always signally active 
against the Tories, for he well knew their influence 
in depressing the spirit of hberty in the country. 
When Gates took command of the Southern army, 
he neither appreciated nor knew how to make the 
best use of Marion and his men. South Carolina, 
recognizing how much she owed to his unwearying 
efforts in her behalf, acknowledged her debt of 
gratitude by making him brigadier-general of her 
Provincial troops, after the defeat of Gates at 
Camden. Early in the year 1781, General Greene 
assumed command of the Southern army, and 
entertaining a high opinion of Marion, sent Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Harry Lee, with his famous legion 
of light-horse, to aid him. Acting in concert and 
sometimes independently, these two noted leaders 
carried on the war vigorously wherever they went, 
capturing Forts Watson and Motte, defeating 
Major Frazier at Parker's Ferry and joining Greene 
in time for the battle of Eutaw Springs. When 
the surrender of Cornwallis practically ended the 
war, Marion returned to his plantation in St. 
John's parish and soon after was elected to the 
Senate of South Carolina. On the 26th of Febru- 
ary, 1783, the following resolutions were unani- 
mously adopted by that body : — 

" Resolved, 



THOMAS SUMTER. 163 

^^ Resolved, That the thanks of this House be given 
Brigadier-General Marion in his place as a member 
of this House, for his eminent and conspicuous ser- 
vices to his country. 

" Resolved, That a gold medal be given to Brigadier- 
General Marion as a mark of public approbation for 
his great, glorious, and meritorious conduct." 

In 1 784, he was given command of Fort Johnson 
in Charleston Harbor, and shortly after, he mar- 
ried Mary Videau, a lady of Huguenot descent, 
who possessed considerable wealth and was a most 
estimable character. On the 27th of February, 
1795, Francis Marion passed peacefully away, say- 
ing, '' Thank God, I can lay my hand on my heart 
and say that since I came to man's estate I have 
never intentionally done wrong to any." 



THOMAS SUMTER. 

Thomas Sumter, bom in Virginia in 1734, served 
in the French and Indian War, and afterward on 
the Western frontier. Establishing himself finally 
in South Carolina, he was appointed in March, 
1776, lieutenant-colonel of the Second Regiment 
of South Carolina Riflemen, and sent to overawe 
the Tories and Loyalists in the interior of the 
State. The comparative immunity from war se- 
cured to South Carolina during the first years of 

the 



1 64 THOMAS SUMTER. 

the Revolution deprived Sumter of any opportu- 
nity for distinguishing himself until after the sur- 
render of Charleston to the British in 1780. 
Taking refuge for a time in the swamps of the 
Santee, he made his way after a while to North 
Carolina, collected a small body of refugees, and 
presently returned to carry on a partisan warfare 
against the British. His fearlessness and impetu- 
osity in battle gained for him the sobriquet of 
" the game-cock ; " and with a small band of un- 
disciplined mihtia, armed with ducking-guns, sabres 
made from old mill-saws ground to an edge, and 
hunting-knives fastened to poles for lances, he 
effectually checked the progress of the British 
regulars again and again, weakened their numbers, 
cut off their communications, and dispersed nu- 
merous bands of Tory militia. 

Like Marion, whenever the enemy threatened to 
prove too strong, Sumter and his followers would 
retreat to the swamps and mountain fastnesses, to 
emerge again when least expected, and at the right 
moment to take the British at a disadvantage. 
During one of many severe engagements with 
Tarleton, he was dangerously wounded and com- 
pelled for a time to withdraw from active service, 
but learning Greene's need of troops, Sumter again 
took the field. After rendering valuable assistance 
toward clearing the South of the British, the failure 
of his health again forced him to seek rest and 

strength 



ADDENDA. 165 

Strength among the mountains, leaving his brigade 
to the command of Marion. When once more 
fitted for duty, the British were in Charleston, and 
the war was virtually at an end. Though Sumter's 
military career ended with the disbanding of the 
army, his country still demanded his services. 
He represented South Carolina in Congress from 
1789 to 1793, and from 1797 to 180 1 ; he served in 
the United States Senate from 1801 to 1809, and 
was minister to Brazil from 1809 to 181 1. He 
died at South Mount, near Camden, South Caro- 
lina, on the I St of June, 1832, the last surviving 
general officer of the Revolution. 



ADDENDA. 

Prior to the adoption of the " federal Con- 
stitution," partisan feeling ran high on this side 
of the Atlantic, — indeed, it was no unusual thing 
for a man to speak of the colony in which he was 
born as his comitry. When the struggle for Ameri- 
can independence began, though men were will- 
ing to fight in defence of their own State, there 
was great difficulty in filling the ranks of the Con- 
tinental army, — not only because of the longer 
time for which they were required to enlist, but 
also because once in the Continental service, they 

would 



1 66 ADDENDA. 

would be ordered to any part of the country. 
The same difficulty existed in respect to securing 
members for the Continental Congress. With the 
slowness of transportation and the uncertainty of 
the mails, it was no small sacrifice for a man to 
leave his home, his dear ones, and his local pres- 
tige, to become one of an unpopular body direct- 
ing an unpopular war, for it was not until near 
the end of the struggle that the Revolution was 
espoused by the majority. It was under these 
circumstances, then, ' that three different kinds of 
troops composed the American army, — the Con- 
tinentals, the Provincials, and the Militia. The 
first could be ordered to any point where they 
were most needed ; the second, though regularly 
organized and disciplined, were only liable to 
duty in their own State ; and the last were hastily 
gathered together and armed in the event of any 
pressing need or sudden emergency. Washington, 
as stated in his commission, was commander-in- 
chief of all the forces. The other subjects of the 
foregoing sketches were the commanding officers 
of the Continental army. Marion and Warren were 
famous generals of the Provincials ; while Pickens 
and Ten Brock were noted leaders of the militia. 
Dr. Joseph Warren received his commission of 
major-general from the Massachusetts Assembly 
just before the battle of Bunker Hill. He was 
among the last to leave the redoubt, and while 

trying 



ADDENDA. 1 67 

trying to rally his men was shot and killed. By his 
untimely end America lost one of her purest pa- 
triots ; and General Gage is reported to have said, 
^' Warren's death was worth that of five hundred or- 
dinary rebels." Andrew Pickens, brigadier-general 
of South Carolina Militia, never fought outside of 
his own State, but received from Congress a sword 
in recognition of his gallant conduct at the battle 
of Cowpens. 

All the dates and facts in the foregoing sketches 
have been carefully verified by comparison with 
the " Continental Army Returns " and "Journals of 
the Continental Congress," and various cyclopaedias 
and histories. 



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